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A CRITICAL REVIEW OF BERING’S 
FIRST EXPEDITION, 1725-30, 

TOGETHER WITH A TRANSLATION OF HIS 
ORIGINAL REPORT UPON IT. 

With a Map. 

X' 

By Wm. H. Dall. 


Lecture delivered before the “ National Geographic Society ” at Wash¬ 
ington, February 7, 1890—Published in the “National Geographic 
MagazineVol. II, No. 2. 












































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A CRITICAL REVIEW OF BERING’S FIRST EXPEDI¬ 
TION, 1725-30, TOGETHER WITH A TRANSLATION 
OF HIS ORIGINAL REPORT UPON IT. With a Map. 

By Wm. H. Dale. 

Contents. — Introductory remarks. — Instruments and Methods. — 
Sources of information.—Translation of Bering’s Report.—Bering’s 
List of Geographical Positions.—An Itinerary of the Expedition.— 
Annotated Synopsis of the Voyage compiled from all accessible data. 
—Comparative Table of Geographical Positions.—Resume of the 
results of the Expedition. 

In 1648 the tide of exploration and adventure setting eastward 
through Siberia, impelled the fitting out of seven small trading 
boats on the Kolyma river. Three of these, in charge of Simeon 
Deshneff, Gerasim Ankudinoff and Feodor Alexieff, respectively, 
reached Bering Strait. Ankudinoff’s boat was wrecked on East 
Cape, but his party was accommodated on the others. There 
were hostilities with the Chukchi, the two boats Avere separated, 
and Deshneff’s alone finally reached Kamchatka. Next year he 
constructed the trading post on the Anadyr river subsequently 
known as Anadyrsk. 

There is a tradition that in 1654 a trader named Taras Stadu- 
kin followed Deshneff’s route, made a portage across the neck of 
East Cape, circumnavigated Kamchatka, discovered the Kurile 
Islands, and finally reached the Gulf of Penjina in safety. 

In 1711 an emissary named Peter Iliunsen Popoff was sent to 
East Cape by the Russians to induce the Chukchi to pay tribute. 
In this he failed, but brought back an account of islands beyond 
East Cape, and of a continent reported by the Chukchi to exist 
beyond these islands. Some statements which he made in regard 
to "the people of this continent were regarded by geographers of 
the last century as fictitious, but with our better knowledge, they 
set the seal of authenticity upon Popoff’s report and show that 
his journey was really made. 

The political disorders which prevailed in Western Russia 
about this period, prevented any attention from being directed to 
the reports of these explorations, which were preserved in the 
archives at Yakutsk. Somewhat later the attention of geog- 
VOL. ii. 8 


2 


Review of Bering's First Expedition, 1785-30. 


raphers was directed toward this unknown corner of the world 
and the subject was brought to the notice of Peter the Great. 
He took great interest in it, drew up instructions for an expedition 
with his own hand and delivered them to Count Apraxin with 
orders to see them executed. A few days later, in January, 
1725, he died ; but the Empress desiring to carry out all the plans 
of her deceased husband as closely as possible, ordered their exe¬ 
cution. Fleet-Captain Vitus Ivanovich Bering was nominated to 
the command of the expedition and Lieutenants Martin Spanberg 
and Alexie Chirikoff to be his assistants. 

This expedition forms the subject of this paper. It has been 
treated of by various geographers and biographers, but so far the 
original report of Bering, printed in 1847 in the Russian language, 
has never been faithfully translated into any other language ; 
while his map has never, in its entirety, been published at all. 
Reduced sketches derived from the maps and more or less muti¬ 
lated and garbled versions of the report have appeared in sundry 
collections of voyages, and upon these the latest contributions to 
the history of the expedition have been in great part based. 

Believing that the original report is a document of sufficient 
historic and geographic interest to be made accessible to those 
who do not read Russian, and that the errors of existing works 
make a critical review of the subject desirable, I have translated 
the document in question and prepared a general review of the 
present state of our knowledge in regard to the expedition. 

Bering’s Report being written in archaic and badly spelled 
Russian, with a singular disregard of punctuation and other 
literary niceties, the translation presented unusual difficulties, in 
solving which I have had the kind cooperation of that excellent 
Russian scholar Mr. J. Curtin. I am indebted to the Reverend 
Father Richards, president of Georgetown University, and 
Father Maas of Woodstock College, Md., for valuable informa¬ 
tion in regard to the church festivals and saints, whose names 
were utilized in the nomenclature of Bering’s new discoveries. 
To Mr. Marcus Baker, Messrs. Gannett and Woodward, and Mr. 
C. C. Darwin of the Geological Survey ; Dr. S. Hertzenstein of 
the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences, St. Peters¬ 
burg ; Baron Nordenskiold of Stockholm, and Baron Robert 
Klinckofstrom ; Drs. Holm and Stejneger of the U. S. National 
Museum, and Prof. Julius Olson of Madison, Wisconsin, I am 
* So spelled by Bering himself. 


3 


Review of Bering's First Expedition, 1725-30. 

indebted for numerous favors and courteous assistance, and to 
all of these gentlemen I desire to express my thanks. 

In conclusion I desire to state that I am well aware this paper 
cannot be regarded as a finality, but as a contribution to the geo¬ 
graphical history of North America it will not be without its 
value, while the fact that I have myself spent parts of three 
summers in scientific exploration of the coast visited by Bering 
and first charted by him, has greatly helped me in my discussion 
of minor details of his work. 

Instruments and Methods. 

In considering the work done by the expedition it is very 
necessary to bear in mind the character of the instrumental outfit, 
if any, which they might have possessed, and the state of the 
science of navigation at the time. 

When Bering and his two cartographers left St. Petersburg in 
February, 1725, the astronomical instrument in use by naviga¬ 
tors was the Davis quadrant or “ backstaff,” in which the sun’s 
altitude Avas measured by sighting Avithout a telescope or tube on 
the shadow cast by the sun from one projection of the instrument 
upon another, the observer’s back of course, being turned to the 
luminary. The only alternative to this was the still older astro¬ 
labe with which the observer had to look along the two lines of 
his angle at the same time, and which also depended upon sights 
or spurs attached to a frame. The reflecting quadrant of Hadley 
A\ r as not invented until 1731 and telescopes Avere not used on the 
instruments of navigation until somewhat later. There were no 
chronometers or reliable watches or clocks for use in dividing 
intervals of time. Even after the Hadley quadrant came into 
use, time w T as noted by a pendulum vibrating seconds, which 
could not be used on ship-board. 

A futile attempt had been made by means of tables of varia¬ 
tion of the compass to determine the longitude by comparison 
Avith observed variation in the field. Results by this method 
approached the truth accidentally, if at all. Lunar observations 
Avere the only means of getting an approximation to the longitude 
except the occultations of Jupiter’s satellites, both methods being 
impracticable on board ship, Avith the instruments then employed. 

In 1731 the astronomer Halley proved* that at that date it was 
still impossible to find the longitude correctly by the moon, the 
* Phil. Trans. 1731, No. 421. 




4 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 


lunar tables being so inaccurate that an error of several hundred 
miles was quite possible and an accurate determination would 
depend upon the respective errors of instrument, observation and 
the lunar tables happening to balance one another. Halley ven¬ 
tured to express the hope that the tables may be so amended that 
an error may scarce ever exceed three minutes, which would cor¬ 
respond to a degree and a half of longitude, amounting at the 
equator to a distance of a little less than one hundred miles. 
Messerschmidt, who preceded Bering as an explorer of Eastern 
Siberia, was according to Middendorf (Sib. Reise, iv. 1, p. 56) 
thirty-two degress out in his determination of the longitude, and 
the eastward extent of Asia in this region was underrated by that 
amount or thereabouts, on many maps. 

One other means of approximating to the meridian remained, 
in the observation of eclipses. This from the comparative rarity 
of these occurrences in the case of the sun and moon, could 
with the imperfect instruments of those days be available but sel¬ 
dom. Owing to the difficulty of determining the exact time of 
the first and last contacts the longitudes computed by these obser¬ 
vations were liable to quite as great inaccuracy as those computed 
from the lunar tables. Still an ordinary spyglass would enable 
an observer to note the time within a minute or two, and, if he 
was possessed of the local time, a simple comparison with the ob¬ 
served time of the eclipse in some locality where the longitude 
was known would give a fairly good determination, considering 
the instruments and methods of those days. Of the four eclipses 
of the moon occurring in 1728-9 two might have been observed 
without difficulty by Bering, one would have been invisible to 
him, and one might barely have been noted, but in all probability 
was not observed by him. In none of the published reports of 
the expedition is any mention made by Bering or his officers of 
the occurrence or observation of an eclipse, which seems very sin¬ 
gular if by such an observation he was enabled to correct an error 
of 30° in the longitude of northeastern Siberia. However, Mid- 
dendorf states (Sib. Reise, iv. 1, p. 56) that “ Bering and his lieu¬ 
tenant in the years 1728 and 1729 observed in Kamchatka* two 
eclipses of the moon,” by which they corrected the longitude. 
He gives no authority for this statement. 

* It is possible that an eclipse observed at Ilimsk in Middle Siberia by 
Chirikoff is thus erroneously referred to. 



Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 1725-30. 5 

Euler, who had access to the archives of the Admiralty Col¬ 
lege, while engaged on a Geography of Russia, mentions (Philos. 
Trans., No. 482 , p. 421 ) that he was informed that Bering observed 
an eclipse “ at Kamchatka.” This letter of Euler’s is copied by 
Campbell in Harris’ Voyages (vol. II, Book III, p. 1024 ) and 
the expression “ at Kamchatka ” has led to the statement that 
these observations were made at the fort or village of Lower 
Kamchatka. This is an error since Bering gives no longitude for 
the fort in his table of geographical positions. It must be re¬ 
membered that the name Kamchatka at that period was applied 
not merely to the peninsula as at present, but also to the whole 
region of northeastern Siberia, the governor of Kamchatka being 
located at Okhotsk. So to come within the probable meaning of 
the phrases used by Middendorf and Euler it is only necessary to 
suppose that the observations were made somewhere in that 
region. Lauridsen (Danish edition, note 34 , p. 186 ) refers to a 
paper of Struve (Bull, phys.-math. Acad. St. Petersb., I, 1842 , p. 
290 ) containing a table of geographical positions in Russia, in 
connection with these alleged observations of Bering. An exam¬ 
ination of Struve’s paper does not bear out the implication of 
Lauridsen’s reference, as Struve not only makes no mention what¬ 
ever of Bering’s observations there but specifically states that the 
first observations of precision made in this part of Siberia were 
those of Krassilnikoff who accompanied Bering’s second expedi¬ 
tion in 1741 . It would seem extraordinary that a determination 
so important for geography as that of Bering and his companion 
should be unknown to so distinguished an astronomer as Struve 
who must have had access to all the archives of the early explora¬ 
tions by Russia. But it may be perhaps accounted for by the 
facts that Bering’s observations were necessarily of a very rough 
and primitive character—as it is certain he had no instruments of 
precision ; and that, for that reason, they were not received with 
entire confidence ; so that Struve may have considered them insuf¬ 
ficiently exact to be included with those of Krassilnikoff and 
others made with more modern appliances. 

From the note in regard to the eclipses which is kindly contri¬ 
buted by Mr. Marcus Baker and from the other circumstances, it 
is evident that if Bering and his party made the observations 
alluded to, the eclipses noted were the partial eclipse of Feb. 25 
(local calendar), 1728 , of which he might have observed the last 
contact, or the total eclipse of Feb. 14 , 1729 , of which he might 


6 Review of Bering's First Expedition , 17£5-30. 

have observed the first contact and the totality. At the time of 
the last eclipse he was at Lower Kamchatka post, and as, in the 
list of positions handed in with his Report in 1730, no longitude 
is entered for this locality, it would seem that choice is reduced 
to the first of the two mentioned ; which occurred when Bering 
was either at Bolsheretsk or on his way from that place to Lower 
Kamchatka, which he reached about a month later. Campbell’s 
table of positions is credited by him to the year 1728, but my 
own opinion is that it was really derived (with various errors, 
interpolations, etc.) from Bering’s table of 1730. 

The ordinary method of getting the longitude of a place, and 
that upon which Bering originally depended, as his itinerary table 
shows, was by a continuous record of the distances and directions 
traveled from a point of known longitude. This record would 
afford the data from which the distance on a mean parallel, by 
means of a traverse table, could be computed. Laborious, im¬ 
perfect, and slow as it was, it was the only sure reliance of the 
traveler in those days. Whether Bering observed an eclipse or 
not, it is certain that his original dependence was upon his 
itinerary, that his report was based upon that and that this part 
of his work was done as well as the nature of the method would 
permit. His silence about the eclipse maybe due to the fact that 
he depended not upon astronomical but upon pedometric observa¬ 
tions, to wdiich the eclipse may have afforded some corrections. 
At any rate the pedometric determination of the distance between 
Tobolsk and Okhotsk or the peninsula of Kamchatka was in 
itself a tremendous undertaking. 

I find by a rough calculation from Bering’s data that the longi¬ 
tude resulting from his itinerary from Tobolsk to Okhotsk is 
77° 36' E. The distance in a straight line is about 2,390 miles, 
but by the route Bering traveled the distance is a little more than 
3,746 miles. The longitude in Bering’s .List of Positions is 
76° 07', which differs from the pedometric measurement by 1° 29' 
(or about 45 miles). On Bering’s map, Okhotsk is located in 
longitude 74° 30' E. of Tobolsk, while the most modern observa¬ 
tions for Okhotsk put it in 142° 40' E. of Greenwich or 75° 40' 
E. of Tobolsk. So that Bering’s pedometric measurement was 
nearly 60 miles in excess ; his revised table (as corrected by the 
eclipse ?) 27 miles in excess ; and his map about 30 miles in error 
in the opposite direction. These discrepancies show the inexact¬ 
ness of the methods then in vogue and also that the pedometric 




7 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 1785-30. 

method was not very much worse than the others in its results. 
Although there are several typographic or other errors in his 
table of itinerary which render exact comparisons impossible, it 
may be said that the error of the pedometric method, including 
the passage by sea from Okhotsk to Kamchatka, averages about 
two degrees or sixty geographical miles. In the cases of Okhotsk 
and Bolsheretsk the error is one of excess ; in the case of the 
cape at the mouth of the Kamchatka river and of the turning 
point of the expedition north of Bering Strait, the result is too 
small by about the same amount. 

That his chart and his revised list of positions should differ as 
they do, is quite as likely the result of the careless way in which 
the minutiae of such work were generally regarded at that day, as 
to any difference of date, or of intentional modification. 

To conclude our review of the instrumental means and methods 
then in use, it may be said that the compasses in use at that day 
were comparatively roughly made and more or less inaccurate. 
The variation was determined in a given latitude by the azimuth 
of the Polestar or the sun at setting observed by means of sights 
attached to the rim of the compass, which was a method accurate 
enough for the general purposes of navigation. The distance run 
was measured on shipboard by the log which was in about the 
same form and perfection as at present, being a very ancient 
invention. 

The survey of a general coast-line was made by compass bear¬ 
ings on prominent points, repeated from successive stations, the 
distances of the ship’s course being determined by the log and 
the courses by compass, with corrections for current and the varia¬ 
tion. The lines thus obtained were checked by latitude observa¬ 
tions made with Davis’ backstaff when the weather permitted. 

Apart from any of the methods mentioned it seems to have 
been overlooked that Bering might have corrected the longitudes 
of the X.E. Siberian coast by the ordinary dead reckoning kept 
on board his vessel, provided he started by adopting the longitude 
for the southern part of Kamchatka peninsula which was in com¬ 
mon use on many of the charts of his day. Though it is true 
that the maps of that part of Siberia north and northeast from 
the Okhotsk sea were many degrees in error in the longitude, this 
observation does not hold good in regard to the southern end of 
Kamchatka. The work of the Jesuit fathers in China had 
already determined fairly well the position of China and Korea, 


8 Review of Bering's First Expedition, 1725-30. 

while rude outlines of the northern islands of Japan, Sakhalin, 
the Kuriles and the south end of Kamchatka, were added to these 
on maps of Asia. The outlines are often very incorrect but it is 
quite evident what is intended. In nearly all early maps of this 
region which I have been able to consult, as for instance those of 
N. de Witt, I have found the south end of Kamchatka in approxi¬ 
mately correct longitude. For instance, in the Novissimae Epherne- 
rides of Manfredio, published at Bonn the same year that Bering 
left St. Petersburg, and which might well have been sent to him 
before he sailed, we find two charts of the paths of solar eclipses 
(Plates ii and iii). On these charts the meridian of 180° from 
Ferro passes across what is unmistakably the south end of Kam¬ 
chatka, though northeastern Siberia remains a blank. This 
would be a sufficient starting point and is quite as correct as 
Bering’s determinations ; in fact is within a few miles of the 
modern longitudes for the same part of the peninsula. Dead 
reckoning along the shores of the peninsula, corrected by latitude 
observations, would have done all that was necessary to correct 
the meridian without observing any lunar eclipse, provided the 
surveyor started with such an assumption as Manfredio’s or De 
Witt’s charts supply. 

Sources of Information. 

The general History of China [etc.] Done from the French of 
P[ere]. DuHalde [by R. Brookes]. London, John Watts, 1736. 
4 vols. 8° with maps and ills. 

This is referred to in the following text by the letter B. 

This is the first English translation from the original French edition 
of the “ Description geographique et historique de l’empire de la Chine ” 
by the father J. B. Du Halde, published at the Hague in the same year 
as the above translation. The text of the original French I have not 
been able to consult, though, so far as Bering’s voyage fs concerned, 
there does not seem to have been any material abridgment in the 
translation above cited, for an opportunity of consulting which I am 
indebted to the Librarian of Congress. 

The maps and charts of the original French edition were separately 
printed in an atlas by themselves, for the use of those who might desire 
to do without the text, under the following title : 

Nouvel Atlas de la Chine, de la Tartarie Chinoise, et du Thibet: 
contenant Les Chartes generates & particulieres de ces Pays, 
ainsi que la Carte du Royaume de Coree ; (etc.) : Redigees par 



9 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725 - 30 . 

M r D’Anville, Geographe ordinaire de sa Majeste tres Chretienne, 
Precede d’une description de la Boucharie, Par un OfKcier Suedois 
que a fait quelque sejour dans ce Pays. A la ITaye, chez Henri 
Scheurleer mdccxxxvii. Folio, 12 pp. 42 charts. 

The chart of Bering forms sheet 42, and differs from the others in 
being on Mercator’s projection which indicates that it was copied 
directly from an original as stated in the text, and not redrawn. It is 
20by 94s inches on the neat-lines and is entitled : 

“ Carte des Pays traverse par le Cap ue . Beerings depuis la 
ville de Tobolsk jusqu’a Kamtschatka,” 

Beneath the title is a table of four transliterated Russian terms for 
fort, post, village and convent, with their French equivalents. This 
and certain peculiarities in the transliteration of proper names make it 
certain that the original chart was in Russian and that the translitera¬ 
tion was done by some one not perfectly familiar with both languages. 
There are a few errors of the engraver in rendering single letters “ c ” 
appearing for “ t” and “ r” for “ e” in a few places. The longitude is 
reckoned in degrees east from Tobolsk to which 67 3 degrees when added 
will give practically the meridian east from Greenwich. The transcriber 
of the map from the Russian appears to have been a Dane, G. Kondet. 

That part of this chart east from 112° E. Gr. lias been fairly repro¬ 
duced by Lauridsen (Chart I) with the omission of some unimportant 
names and the addition of a signature (not the ordinary autograph) of 
Bering. This is reproduced with a different running headline to 
accompany Olson’s translation. 

The fourth volume of Brookes’ translation (pp. 429-440) con¬ 
tains 

“ A succinct narrative of Captain Beerings’s Travels into 
Siberia 

with a reduction of the above-mentioned map, on which there is no 
trace of the island of St. Demetrius, even its name, which alone appears 
on the Du Halde map, is here omitted. Otherwise this version of the 
map does not differ from Du Halde’s, more than one copy of a drawing 
usually differs from another. When Bering started on his expedition 
he was accompanied by two cartographers (Bergli, First Voy. of the 
Russ. pp. 2-5, fide Lauridsen) Luzhin and Potiloff, and to one or both of 
them under Bering’s direction the construction of the map in question 
was probably due. 

When Bering made his report it was accompanied by a list of posi¬ 
tions for important places visited by the Expedition. 

Dr. Campbell, while gathering material for his second edition of 
Harris’ Voyages, procured a copy of this unpublished list of positions 
and prints it in his account of Bering’s travels, with the comment that 


10 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725—30. 


it was sent by Bering from Kamchatka, before his return to Russia, and 
to the Senate at St. Petersburg, to which Bering did not report. 
Whether due to the transcriber or the printer there are several very 
obvious errors in the list as printed by Campbell, and when it is com¬ 
pared with Bering’s own list we see that there are also several interpo¬ 
lations. 

But the positions adopted in the chart, said by Du Halde to have been 
brought to St. Petersburg by Bering on his return (a statement con¬ 
firmed by the mention of a chart in the report itself), are not identical 
with the positions enumerated in the list. This leads to the suspicion 
that Bering’s first chart was not published, and that the chart issued 
was due to a recomputation and revision of his data. This suspicion is 
made stronger by the statement of Lauridsen, who gives no authority, 
however, that Bering’s chart was made in Moscow in 1731,* though this 
may merely mean that some of the copies which were distributed to 
various personages were so prepared. 

These manuscript copies of the chart and report were sent to various 
foreign courts, as a matter of general interest, by the Russian authori¬ 
ties. The copy used by Du Halde was communicated to him by the 
King of Poland who had received it as a “ Present worthy of his regard 
and curiosity ” (Du Halde, iv, p. 439, Brookes’ ed.). Other copies were 
sent to Sweden and probably to England and other countries. In the 
journal, “Ymer,” of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geog¬ 
raphy (1884, p. 93) is a short notice by E. Dalilgren of three manuscript 
copies of Bering’s chart of his first expedition, or rather of charts 
embodying its results. Two of these charts are in the Royal archives 
of Sweden and measures 58 x 135 cm. One of them is ornamented with 
ten colored drawings of natives of Siberia. The other is without these 
but does not seem to be a copy of the first as it has a number of sound¬ 
ings between St. Lawrence and the Diomede Islands which are not on 
the former, and some names which are peculiar to it. Both have 
many more names than are given on the chart published by Du Halde. 
Both of the manuscripts have a legend referring to the coast from the 
Kolyma eastward, on the north coast of Siberia, to the effect that it is 
put down from older charts and information, doubtless furnished by 
the archives at Yakutsk. The third copy is in the possession of Baron 
Robert Klinckofstrom, of St.afsund, Sweden. 

Through the kind offices of Baron Nordenskiold and the generosity of 
Baron Klinckofstrom, the last mentioned chart has been forwarded to 
the writer through the Smithsonian Institution for examination. It 
appears to be essentially the same as the second of the two charts 
referred to as comprised in the Royal Swedish Archives. The result of 
my examination of it leads me to the belief that there were two dif¬ 
ferent charts sent out in manuscript by the Russian authorities. The 
first, which I regard as the earlier, and which is certainly more accu¬ 
rate. shows the island of St. Demetrius in its proper place in accord¬ 
ance with Bering’s Report and list of positions. It formed the basis of 


* Lauridsen, Am. ed., p. 57. 





Review of Rerinfs First Expedition , 1735-30. 


11 


Campbell’s engraving which will be referred to later, and of the chart 
which appears in the various editions of Du Halde. It is possible that 
this represents the original chart prepared by Bering in Kamchatka 
during the winter of 1728-9. The second and probably later form of 
the chart is represented by the Klinckofstrom chart, upon which the 
name and island of St. Demetrius have vanished and a smaller island 
in the corresponding latitude is represented close to the Siberian coast 
and westward from the meridian passing through the eastern extreme 
of East Cape. This island is named the island of St. Diomede. If it is 
intended as a revised position for the island of St. Demetrius of the 
other chart and of Bering’s Report, it is in conflict with the facts and 
with the position assigned to St. Demetrius in the report. No one who 
had sailed between St. Demetrius and East Cape could have sanctioned 
such a position for the island with honesty. If a different island is 
intended the question arises, Why is St. Demetrius omitted ? This sec¬ 
ond chart is obviousiy the basis upon which in D’Anville’s chart of 
Asia (1753) the configuration of the eastern extreme of Siberia is based, 
and I suspect that the chart of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at 
St. Petersburg and the reproduction of Jefferys, were also derived from 
it as far as this region is concerned. 

It would be rash, in the absence of authentic information which only 
the Russian archives can supply, to hazard an opinion as to the origin 
of the important difference between these charts. I may return to this 
point later. Apart from this, it may be added that the northern coast 
of Siberia from East Cape west to Cape Sheiagskoi is represented as 
mountainous throughout its extent. A legend states that it is laid 
down from older charts and information. This relieves Bering from 
the responsibility for the fictitious or at least grossly erroneous and 
exaggerated form and direction given to Cape Sheiagskoi on his chart. 
The west coast of the Okhotsk sea and part of its northeastern shores 
not visited by Bering are stated to be laid down from “information.” 
This map is not dated and the blank space in the title left for Bering’s 
autograph has never been filled. No name of draughtsman or place or 
authority of issue are indicated upon it. It measures 51 by 20£ inches 
between the neat-lines. It is in black and white, the mountains 
washed in, the only color being small green trees as a conventional sign 
for wooded country. A copy of the earlier chart fell into the hands of 
Dr. Campbell and was published by him in his edition of Harris’ 
Voyages,* together with a version of the report which is more or less 
mutilated and'to which the editor to make his book more readable has 

* Harris, John. Complete collection of Voyages and travels [etc.]. 
London, T. Woodward [and others] 1748. 2 v. folio, maps and plates, 

Vol. 2, pp. 1016-1041, is devoted to a discussion of Bering’s discoveries, 
entitled: Book III, Section VIII. “A distinct account of part of the 
northeast frontier of the Russian Empire, commonly called the country 
of Kamschatka or Kamschatska including the voyages of Captain 
Behring for discovering toward the East [etc.], collected from the best 
authorities both printed and manuscript.” 



12 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

added certain flowers of rhetoric which detract from its accuracy. 
Campbell’s copy of the map is the most perfect yet published and the 
only one showing the island of St. Demetrius in its proper place. 

In Du Halde’s copy and those derived from it the eastern border of 
the chart has cut off the island, though in some of them, as in that of 
1736, the name remains. The only fault to be noted in Campbell's 
edition of Bering’s map is the omission by the engraver of the small 
bay named Preobrazhenia by Bering and which, though it is not named, 
appears on the other editions of the map. The title is as follows : 

“ An exact chart of all the countries through which Cap 4 . 
Behring travelled, from Tobolsk! Capital of Siberia to the country 
of Kamtschatka.” 

The size of the map is 7x12^/ inches. It extends on the east to the 
meridian of 126° east from Tobolsk which enables the “Isle of St. 
Demetrius ” (our present Big Diomede) to appear in its proper place. 
The editions previously reported have all stopped at the 124th meridian, 
thus cutting off the island, whose name sometimes appeared and some¬ 
times did not. 

It will be observed that Dr. Campbell in this paper was the means of 
introducing the erroneous and obnoxious Germanized spelling of Ber¬ 
ing's name into English literature. This is a pretty good indication 
that he had no autographic documents from Bering himself, and that 
his manuscripts were obtained from German sources, or at least had 
been transcribed into the German language. In liis thorough search 
of the literature of the subject and lengthy discussion of the results, 
Dr. Campbell undoubtedly gathered the fullest account of the first 
expedition which had up to that date been printed. In order to 
enliven his history of the proceedings, the good Doctor occasionally 
rises to flights of fancy, and the theories he held were long since proved 
erroneous. 

There are several other English translations of Du Halde’s China, of 
which the following is the most important : 

“ A description of the empire of China and Chinese-Tartary, 
together with the kingdoms of Korea, and Tibet : containing the 
geography and history (natural as well as civil) of those countries. 
From the French of P. J. B. Du Halde, Jesuit. Illustrated with 
general and particular maps, and adorned with a great number of 
cuts. With notes geographical, historical and critical, and other 
improvements, particularly in the maps, by the Translator.” 
London, Edward Cave, 1741. 2 vols. folio, maps and ills. 

This edition does not show the name of the translator, but he was 
evidently a man of no small attainments as a geographer and carto¬ 
grapher, and introduced numerous improvements and corrections into 
the charts of D’Anville, which accompanied the original edition of Du- 






13 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

Halde. A copy of this was presented to the library of Harvard College 
by the province of New Hampshire in 1765-6, for an opportunity of 
examining which I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Justin 
Winsor, the Librarian. 

The text of this edition, compared with that of 1736, is as much as 
possible abridged, yet contains nothing not in the original,-but the map 
exhibits certain additions to be noted. This map is entitled, 

“A Map of Capt. Beerings’ travels from Tobolskoy to Kam¬ 
chatka between y e years 1725 and 1730. With improvements by 
y e Editor." It contains the following note by the editor. “Capt. 
Beerings probably observ'd y e Lat. d in v e Principal places thro’ 
w ch he pass’d, tho' two Observations only are mentioned in his 
Journal. But M r Ivyrilow in his Map of the Russian Empire 
does not follow y e Author in this respect for instance he places 
Ilimski l c 30' more north, Yakutskoy 2° more south, and Cape 
Chiokotskago 1° more south than Cap 1 . Beerings ; likewise other 
places in Proportion. I have reckon'd y e Long* 1 of Tobolskoy 
from Paris according to an Eclipse of v e Sun observed at Ham¬ 
burg and Tobolskoy, mentioned by Mr. Strahlenberg in his 
account of y e Northern parts of Europe and Asia. This is all 
that can be done till y e return of y e Russian Mathematicians sent 
to make observations and discoveries throughout Siberia.” Then 
follows a line “Inscribed to Francis Gashrey Esq r .” 

The main body of the chart is that of Du Halde's original and the 
scale is the same, but the height of the neat-lines is only 8^ inches. 
Bering's track from Okhotsk to Bolsheretsk. across Kamchatka, north¬ 
ward to 67’ 18': also his track eastward from Kamchatka in 1729 and 
around the peninsula to Bolsheretsk and Okhotsk ; are indicated by 
dotted lines. The two latitudes noted in Bering's journal are indicated 
on this map by a +, and the northern one is placed near the Asiatic 
coast in latitude 118° E. from Tobolsk. At the top of the map the sup¬ 
posed Paris meridians* are indicated, a difference between Paris and 
Tobolsk being assumed of 70’ degrees, which is about five degrees too 
much. There are also sundry infelicities in the transliteration of the 
names from the French of D'Anville. 

A chart which deserves notice, though almost wholly fictitious, being 
chiefly devoted to the spurious discoveries of the alleged Admiral de 
Fonte. was issued by J. N. de L'lsle with the concurrence of M. P. 
Buache, or at his suggestion. It appeared at Paris, in 1752, and was 
copied for Jefferys' (24) edition of Voyages from Asia to America in 
1764. I do not know if this copy appeared in the first edition, but pre¬ 
sume it did. 

* In the Campbell map these are taken as east from London with 
an allowance of 67 ; between London and Tobolsk. 


14 Review of Bering's First Expedition, 1725-30. 

For present purposes the interesting features of this map are as 
follows : 

Opposite the eastern extreme of the Chukchi peninsula there is 
represented part of America with the legend, “Torres vues par Mr. 
Span berg in 1728, frequences a present par les Russes, qui en apportentf 
de tres belles fourrures.” In the English edition the legend is “Seen 
by Spanberg 1728.” Four islands are represented in the strait between 
Asia and America, corresponding in a general wav to the four now 
known to exist there. Connected with America and north of the 
Chukchi peninsula is land with an island off it corresponding not badly 
to Wrangell and Herald Islands, and marked “Discovered in 1722.” It 
is possible that this land is a hypothetical compound of the land 
reported by the Chukcliis east of the strait with that which they knew 
to be visible in clear weather from Cape Yakan. more or less confused 
accounts of which had long been current among persons interested in 
these regions. 

The next chart of note in this connection was published by D’Anville, 
the royal geographer of France, who had previously prepared the 
original map of Bering for publication. He issued a general map of 
Asia, in three parts, each of two leaves which could be joined together, 
of which the first part appeared in 1751 and the third part in 1753, 
entitled : 

Troisieme Partie de la Carte / d’Asie,/contenant / La Siberie et 
quelques autres parties / de la Tartarie, Publiee sous les Auspices 
de Monseigneur Louis-Philippe d’Orleans / Due d’Orleans/Pre¬ 
mier Prince du Sang./Par le S r . d’Anville,/Secretaire de Son 
Alt s . Sereniss 8 ./MDCCLIII. Avec Privilege. 

This map is in two sheets (each 20 x 21 inches), the engraving of the 
geographical part by Guill. de la Haye and of the ornamental title by 
De Lafosse. The longitude is reckoned from Ferro, and the map is 
constructed on a scale of 23 French leagues to 60 geographical miles. 
The boundaries are colored and the sea shore shaded with short hori¬ 
zontal lines. It is on the poly conic projection. 

This map includes many of the additions to geography in eastern 
Siberia which were due to the members of the great Siberian expedi¬ 
tion. The courses and branches of the rivers especially were aug¬ 
mented and corrected as well as named. The branches of the Anadyr 
River were represented and named, but as no new information in 
regard to the coast had been received at that date, this river was still 
mapped as entering the sea to the south and west of Cape Thaddeus, as 
erroneously laid down by Bering, who confounded with the Anadyr a 
small river which does come in here, and passed the estuary of the 
true Anadyr without seeing it. The coast lines are essentially those of 
Bering. Beyond the basins of the Kolyma and Anadyr is marked 
“Terre inconnue”; a small supplement in the north-east corner of the 
map, on half the scale of the map, represents the north-east extreme of 
Asia as delineated by Bering. This little supplement is of considerable 
interest as it gives fuller information than that which appears on the 




Review of Bering ’s First Expedition, 1725-30. 


15 


original publication of Du Halde, perhaps from a more modern version 
of Bering’s chart, as previously suggested. 

Several names appear for the first time in cartographic history, upon 
this map. Preobrazhenia Bay ; Bolshoia River falling into Holy Cross 
Bay, and the “ Isle de St. Diomide” are among these. The Island of 
St. Demetrius is omitted, as well as its name. The Island of St. 
Diomide is placed about on a line between East Cape and Cape 
Chukotski, to the westward of the meridian of East Cape. There is a 
discrepancy averaging about five minutes in latitude and longitude 
between the positions on this map and those on the second version of 
the Bering manuscript charts. But in the main these differences are, I 
suspect, merely due to carelessness in copying, and the general har¬ 
mony between the two leads to the belief that the D’Anville outline for 
this region was based on the second version of the manuscript. 

The differences of position for points on this part of the coast are 
numerous. I have noted them in the comparative table of positions 
herewith. They may be chiefly owing to slips in transferring from the 
Mercator to the Polyconic projection ; but some of them are due to 
new information, probably derived from the surveyors of the second 
expedition. Bering island appears on the map, in about its proper 
place, though Copper island is not indicated, nor are any of the 
Aleutians shown. I suspect this is the first publication of a carto¬ 
graphic kind on which Bering island is laid down, as the map of the 
Imperial Academy of Sciences, embodying the geographical results of 
Bering’s Voyage to the coast of America, was not engraved until a 
year later, while De LTsle’s of 1752 does not contain them. 

The island between Cape Shelaginski and East Cape off the northern 
coast, on Bering’s map, is omitted by D’Anville. The Kamchatkan 
peninsula in latitude 56° is represented to have a width of 180 miles, 
while Bering made it 270 miles. 

A most important contribution to the subject appeared in Muller’s 
Historical Collections known as the “ Sammlung Russisclie Geschichte” 
and published at St. Petersburg (Kayseri. Academie der Wissenschaften, 
1732-64. 8°. Nine volumes.) Des dritten Bandes (erstes, zweytes und 

drittes Stuck, pp. 1-304, 1758) contains the original account of the 
Russian Voyages toward America from which the work of Jefferys 
has, with some errors and omissions, been translated. As far as 
regards Bering’s first voyage, there is only one error of consequence 
made by Jefferys, which will be noted in its place. This book is 
extremely rare, and the only copy in America which I have been able 
to find after much enquiry, is in the library of the Smithsonian 
Institution. 

The first volume of this series has the title 

u Eroffnung eines Vorschlages zu Verbesserung der Russischen 
Historie Durch den Druck eines Stiickweise herauszugebenden 
Sammelungen von allerly zu den Umstanden und Begebenheiten 
dieses Reichs gehorigen Naclirichten. St. Petersburg, bey der 
Keyserl. Academie der Wissenschaften, 1732.” 





16 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 


The succeeding volumes have the running title “ Sammlung Russisclie 
Geschichte” with the number of the parts subjoined but no other 
title-page. , 

The account of the Russian Voyages is stated by Muller to have been 
prepared at the direction of the Empress and endorsed by the Academy 
of Sciences. It contains invaluable material on the early explorations, 
which, if it had not been for Muller’s painstaking researches, would 
have been totally lost, as the archives of Yakutsk from whence the 
data were derived by Muller were subsequently destroyed by fire. The 
errors which occur in it are chiefly due to Midler’s endeavor to utilize 
the inexact geographical data of the Promyschleniks and Cossacks by 
combining them with the less detailed but more precise observations of 
later observers. In this attempt he added many valuable details to the 
charts, ut at the same time introduced several errors. The exagger¬ 
ated distances reported by the first explorers who were unable to 
correct their estimates by observations of precision, distort those parts 
of the map due to their reports. The peninsula of Aliaska becomes 
hugely exaggerated as does the Shelagskoi promontory on the Arctic 
Sea. But no unprejudiced person can read Muller’s account without 
perceiving his great caution in accepting unreservedly these imperfect 
contributions, the really important additions which he made to car¬ 
tography, the preciousness of the facts which he rescued from oblivion, 
and his desire to be fair to everybody. 

The insinuations of malice and of a desire to injure Bering by means 
of this account given by Mtiller, which Lauridsen attributes to the 
latter, appear to be entirely the product of a suspicious temperament 
and an excited imagination. Certainly I have seen nothing anywhere 
cited which lends to such suspicions any tint of probability. The facts 
cited in support of them can easily be otherwise explained, if one de¬ 
sires to view the subject judicially, and for the most part are not quite 
thoroughly understood by the Danish author. 

One error upon which the latter lays great stress, is due to a manipu¬ 
lation of the record, originated or at least adopted by Bering himself, 
and which is incorporated in the map and report which all authors 
agree proceeded directly from Bering’s own hand. 

The next map of importance was issued by the Imperial Academy of 
Sciences, St. Petersburg in 1754. It was made under the inspection of 
Gerhard Friedrich, Staatsrath von Muller, who revised and corrected it 
subsequently, when an edition dated 1758 was issued. This map com¬ 
prised the geographical results of the great Siberian expedition sent 
out by the Russian government; of Bering’s voyages ; and of the 
records of the hunters (Promishleniks) and traders in northeastern 
Siberia preserved in the archives of Yakutsk. The sources of this map 
are fully explained by Muller in the “Russian Discoveries” (Jefferys’ 
translation, p. 108 et seq.). I have not been able to examine a copy of 
the original map, and have therefore relied on the English version of 
it which is to be found in Jefferys’ translation, second edition, London. 
1764. 



Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30 . IT 

Among the improvements introduced on this map may be specified, 
the correction of the shores of the Okhotsk Sea, and Gulf of Penjina, 
the correcter location of the mouth of the Anadyr river and its estuary, 
the introduction of the results of the voyages of Gvosdeff, Bering and 
Chirikoff to the northwest coast of America, and a multitude of details 
relating to northeastern Siberia. The island of St. Deomid (Diomede) 
is not represented though its name appears on the 65th parallel in Ber¬ 
ing Strait. The island may have been on the original map and care¬ 
lessly omitted by Jefferys’ engraver on his copy. Among the errors, or 
rather mistaken hypotheses of others, which are suggested in this map 
by dotted lines, are the extension westward to 174° E. of Greenwich, 
of the peninsula of Aliaska which is also given a wholly uncalled-for 
width; and the northward extension of the coast on each side of Bering 
Strait. In the former case the cartographer was misled by ' 1 o errors 
of the map of Bering and Chirikoff’s last voyage and rumors reported 
by other navigators ; and in the second case he followed Bering in 
adopting an erroneous position and exaggerated form for the coast 
eastward from Koliuchin Bay, due to the uncorrected sketches of they 
Cossacks and traders. The northern extension of the American coast 
opposite, was purely hypothetical and for this Muller must be held 
responsible. Many of the western Aleutians are exaggerated in size 
and erroneous in position but the chart of Bering's last voyage, and 
the exaggerated reports of the hunters who followed him, must be held 
responsible for this, in the main. 

The work in which this chart appears is largely derived from Muller’s 
“ Sammlung russische geschiclite,'’ St. Peterburg, 1758, vol. iii, Parts 
I-III (cf. antea). The first edition is entitled, according to bibli¬ 
ographies: 

“Voyages from Asia to America for completing the discoveries 
of the northwest coast of America. A summary of voyages made 
by the Russians on the frozen sea. From the high Dutch of 
Sftaatsrath]. Muller by T. Jefferys. London : T. Jefferys, 
1761.” lxvi, 76 pp. 4°, with four maps. 

The second edition which is that referred to in this paper is entitled 

“Voyages from Asia to America, for completing the dis¬ 
coveries of the northwest coast of America. To which is pre¬ 
fixed, a summary of the Voyages made by the Russians on the 
Frozen Sea, in search of a northeast passage. Serving as an 
explanation of a map of the Russian discoveries, published by 
the Academy of Sciences at Petersburgh, [etc.] London : T. 
Jefferys, 1764,” viii, 120 pp. 4°, four maps. 

A French translation by Dumas, with the author’s initials misprinted 
G. P. instead of G. F., was printed at Amsterdam in 1766. It consisted 
of two volumes, 18mo, with a map. A Danish translation, by Morten 
VOL. II. 9 



18 


Review of Bering's First Expedition, 1725-30. 


Hallager, was issued at Copenhagen in 1784, as a portion of a volume 
relating to northern explorations. Bibliographers seem to have been 
puzzled by the discrepancy of initials, not recognizing that the S. in 
Jeffery’s volume stood for a title and not a name. Another work im¬ 
portant in its collection of facts bearing upon the general question of 
the explorations eastward by the Russians, was published by the arch¬ 
deacon of Wilts, Rev. William Coxe in 1780. This was followed by a 
second edition during the same year. A third edition accompanied by 
a Supplement of 57 pages was printed in 1787 and a fourth in 1808. 
There were two apparently distinct translations of the book printed at 
Paris in 1781, and a German edition at Frankfurt and Leij>zig in 1783. 
The third edition which is the best and most correct appeared both in 
octavo and quarto form, and is that to which reference is made in this 
paper. It is entitled: 

“ Account of the Russian discoveries between Asia and America. 
To which are added the Conquest of Siberia, and the history of 
the transactions and commerce between Russia and China, [etc.]. 
London: T. Cadell, 1787.” 

410 pp. 8° [or 4°] with four charts and one plate; to which is added, 
consecutively paged: 

“ A comparative view of the Russian discoveries with those 
made by Captains Cook and Clerke, and a sketch of what remains 
to be ascertained by future navigators. London: T. Cadell, 1787.” 
3 1. unp., 417-456 pp. 8°. 

The latter was also separately issued. Among the maps contained 
in this work of Coxe’s are a reduced copy of the general map of Russia 
issued by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1776, and 
a chart of Synd’s Voyage toward Chukotski Noss. 

The latter is the only chart of Synd’s voyage (1764-1768) which is 
accessible, and it is vouched for as authentic by Dr. Coxe. Compared 
with later charts it is, of course, extremely imperfect yet there is in it 
enough resemblance to the truth to enable us to recognize what was 
intended in many instances. In the northeastern part of the chart, 
the latitudes are exaggerated and the longitudes contracted in a very 
erroneous manner. Nevertheless we recognize East Cape, here named 
“Prom. Tschukotskoi;” the two islands now called the Diomedes but 
here left nameless ; a large island, moved eastward out of place, but 
doubtless intended for Arakam Island, is called “ I. Diomedis;” while 
among a crowd of islets (referable to the hills of St. Lawrence Island 
seen through a fog and laid down very inaccurately), the name “ S. 
Diomedis ” appears again. The American coast was seen and landed 
upon; Cape Prince of Wales and the shore south and east from it are 
recognizable. The island of St. Mathew was discovered and named, 
though placed a degree too far south. The island of St. Paul in the 




Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 


19 


Pribiloff group was discovered by Synd, put in its true latitude, and 
named Preobrazhenia or Transfiguration Island. It is about seven 
degrees out in relative longitude and fourteen in absolute longitude. 
One cannot doubt however that it was the island now known as St. 
Paul when we recall the fact that there are no other islands than the 
Pribiloff group, in that latitude or within that general area of Bering 
Sea. The southern Cape of the Chukchi Peninsula, Chukotski Cape of 
Bering and Muller is represented two degrees too far south. Preobra¬ 
zhenia Bay is not recognizable but the name is transferred to the 
bight west and north of Cape Bering of our present charts. This part 
of the coast was not however approached by Synd, who spent much 
time on the coast of Kamchatka. On his chart this peninsula is repre¬ 
sented better than we should have expected from the rudeness of the 
rest. 

The map of the Academy shows the influence of those who discredited 
the near approach of America to eastern Siberia ; notwithstanding the 
explorations of Deshneff, Gvosdeff and Synd, the American shore of 
Bering Strait has disappeared altogether. The eastern portion of the 
Chukchi Peninsula is indented by a host of hypothetical inlets, and 
defended by an unrecognizable archipelago of nameless islands. The 
far-stretching chain of islands, among which Bering’s second expedi¬ 
tion was so long entangled, excepting those confirmed by Krenitzen 
and Levasheff (who sailed far north of the southern arc of the chain) is 
also absent. Excepting that the fictitious peninsula north from Chuk¬ 
chi land is effaced, the map in its main features for this region is less 
accurate than that of Bering, and does not compare very favorably 
with that of Muller. And yet but shortly after its publication, the ex¬ 
plorations of Cook and Clerke recorded the facts which should, when 
published, exalt the memory of the older geographers and scatter the 
hypotheses which for a time prevailed against them. 

Their explorations are included in 

“ A voyage to the Pacific Ocean, undertaken by the command 
of his Majesty, for making discoveries in the northern hemis¬ 
phere, [etc.], performed under the direction of captains Cook, 
Clerke and Core, in his Majesty’s ships the Resolution and Dis¬ 
covery, in the years 1776-1780. London, for T. Nicol and T. 
Cadell, 1784-5.” 3 volumes 4° and atlas folio.” 


This is the edition ordered by the Admiralty. Of this celebrated 
work, said to have been written from the explorers’ manuscripts by 
Bishop Douglas, there have been many editions. In the Bulletin of the 
Societe de Geographic, Paris, 1879, pp. 481-540, is a bibliography by 
James Jackson. 

The most interesting points in regard to Cook’s explorations about 
Bering Strait are comprised on the chart (vol. ii, p. 467) entitled : 




20 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 1725-30. 


“ Chart of Norton Sound and of Bheringe Strait made by the 
East Cape of Asia and the west point of America.” 

On this chart the main features of the coast on either side of the 
strait are correctly indicated, though several of the inlets and bays are 
wanting. The Diomedes and Fairv ay Rock of modern charts are lo¬ 
cated but left without names, King’s Island is named ; Arakam was not 
recognized as an island nor was Point Chaplin (Indian Point) observed. 
St. Lawrence Island was seen in foggy weather. Its isolated hills con¬ 
nected by very low flat land led Cook into the error of supposing that 
it comprised several islands, one of which he correctly referred to that 
named St. Lawrence by Bering and the rest he lumped under the name 
of Clerke’s Islands. A single fictitious island, midway between St. 
Lawrence and King’s appears on the chart, but is not namedV>r men¬ 
tioned in the text. St. Lawrence Bay is named and discovered. Ber¬ 
ing and Muller’s Chukotski cape is correctly identified. East Cape is 
well delineated, and the name Serdze Kamen (Heart-Rock) originally 
given to a cliff or bluff point at the entrance of Holy Cross Bay is 
transferred to a point on the Arctic shore of the peninsula. There is a 
confused and somewhat curious history connected with the use of the 
names Serdze-Kamen and Chukotski Cape. After the travels of Desh- 
neff, Popoff and others and the reception at various times of informa¬ 
tion from the natives, it was pretty generally understood among the 
hunters and traders of this region that the extreme of Asia was a cape 
or point on or near which the Chukchi dwelt, or which they described, 
which was not definitely located, and which was vaguely known as the 
Chukchi Cape or the Cape of the Chukchis, Chukotski Noss in the 
Russian tongue. Cape Serdze Kamen will be found on the chart of 
Billings’ Voyage. It was the point where the Chukchis successfully 
defended themselves against the invading Russians who sought to force 
them to pay tribute. Beyond it, for the Russians all was mysterious 
Chukchi country with an unknown coast. This cape being their ne 
plus ultra it is probable that it was more or less confounded by these 
illiterate and ignorant hunters with the supposed eastern Cape of Asia, 
otherwise the Cape of the Chukchis as used by Mtiller. Admit this and 
it is not difficult to frame an hypothesis which shall account for the 
confusion, without recourse to the absurd charges with which Laurid- 
sen attempts to soil the reputation of Muller, Steller and others. 

When Bering named a cape near which he met a baidar-load of 
Chukchi who gave him some geographical information (among other 
things that the coast made a turn after passing it) he called this cape 
with great propriety the Cape of the Chukchis, as observed by Cook 
(ii, p. 474) and with no reference to the legendary Cape of the Chukchis 
above referred to. 

But when Muller and others more familiar with the records of the 
earlier explorers came to make maps, they naturally applied the 
legendary name to the cape which they supposed to be the eastern end 
of Asia, and beyond which the coast makes a turn to the west. Muller 


Review of Berincfs First Expedition , 1725-30. 


21 


believing in a great cape or peninsula on the northern coast of the 
Chukchi country supposed this to be the true Cape Chukotski, and to 
the eastern Cape of Bering he left the name of Serdze-Kamen, prob¬ 
ably knowing little about the original Cape Serdze. And as Bering, by 
the ambiguity of his journal, gave color to the idea that he had rounded 
East Cape and pursued the north coast west of it for a few hours before 
turning homeward, what more natural than that those little acquainted 
with the region should speak of his turning back from near Serdze- 
Kamen ? Thus Cook, following out the same idea derived from his 
study of the map and journal in Harris, transferred the name to a 
point in the latitude at which Bering turned back, on the coast which 
he supposed him to have surveyed. There is plenty of confusion here 
but no just ground for supposing malice in it. 

A publication which throws much light upon Bering’s voyage of 1728 
was printed by Vasili Nikolaievich Bergh (or Berkh) a well known 
writer on geographical matters in connection with Russian history. 
It is in the Russian language and the title may be translated as follows : 

First Sea Voyages of the Russians undertaken for the settle¬ 
ment of this geographical problem—Are Asia and America 
united ?—and performed in 1727, 28 and 29, under the command 
of fleet captain of the first rank, Vitus Bering. To which is 
added a short biographical account of Captain Bering and some 
of his officers. St. Petersburg, Academical printing office, 1823. 
8°. 3 pr. 1. iv, 126 pp. 1 map. Russian text. 

This book was printed, as many private books are, at the printing 
office of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, but was not published or 
printed by the Academy. The only copies I know of are those in the 
library of the Academy and one in the British Museum library, neither 
of which I have been able personally to consult. But through the kind 
offices of Dr. S. Hertzenstein, of the Zoological Museum of the Acad¬ 
emy, I learn that Bergh found in the Archives of the State Admiralty 
Department the logbook of midshipman Peter Chaplin entitled, “Mid¬ 
shipman Peter Chaplin’s journal of the Kamchatka expedition of 
1725-1731.” From this MSS and from the notes of G. F. Muller and 
Admiral Nagaieff, Bergh compiled his work. Chaplin’s journal is not 
reprinted verbatim but only paraphrased by Bergh who adds Ins own 
commentary on the subject matter, and occasionally gives extracts 
from Chaplin whose logbook seems to have been kept in a model way. 

An effort will be made to obtain a copy of the original logbook,* but 
for the present we are obliged to be content with what of authenticity 

* Simultaneously with the proofs of this paper the work of Bergh 
has been communicated to me through the liberality of the University 
Upsala, Sweden. The results of a critical examination of it will 
form the subject of a later paper as the present publication cannot be 
delayed. 










22 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

remains to the data which have been translated or paraphrased by 
Bergli, Lauridsen and Olson, necessarily submitting to more or less 
modification in the process. 

The most authentic and important document for the history of this 
voyage is naturally the official report handed in by Bering himself and 
printed in the Journal of the Military Topographical Dej>ot of the 
Russian Army, volume x, pp. 67-79, St. Petersburg, 1847. 

This journal is a quarto and the report is printed verbatim et literatim 
if one may judge by the archaic and mispelled words with which it is 
adorned. It comprises Bering’s report including his instructions, a 
table of geographical positions, and a painfully detailed table of routes 
and distances by which his position in Kamchatka was computed. 
This report has never been translated in full and unmodified, the orig¬ 
inal is thought to have been lost. The present publication is not re¬ 
ferred to by Lauridsen and was apparently unknown to him. I 
have therefore thought it worth while to prepare an English version 
of the report and geographical table which are incorporated in this 
paper. 

The result shows that the previous versions of the report which have 
appeared were more or less mutilated or colored by the editors printing 
them, probably with the view of making the report of more popular 
interest to their readers but with injurious results to its historic value 
for reference. 

We now come to the latest contributions to the subject. If it were 
not for the deficiencies in them, which seem to me serious, this paper 
would not have been prepared, but it seemed to be a pity that the sources 
of information in regard to Bering, accessible to those who do not read 
Russian should not be both more impartial and more accurate. 

Vitus J. Bering og de Russiske opdagelsesrejser fra 1725-43. 
Af P. Lauridsen. Udgivet med understottelse af den Hielm- 
stierne-Rosencroneske stiftelse. Kjobenhavn. Gyldendalske 
Boghandels forlag (F. Hegel & Son). Fr. Bagges bogtrykkeri, 
1885. Small 4°, six prel. 1. 211 pp., 4 sheets of charts, one plate, 

one wood-cut. 


This work is an attempt at a life of Bering which should combine 
an account of his career with a reversal of the generally received 
opinion in regard to his indecision of character. It embodies a general 
polemic against those who at different times have criticised the explorer. 
It contains a paraphrase of some portions of Bergli’s work which had 
not previously been accessible in any language except the Russian, yet 
which would have been much more valuable in the shape of exact 
translation and quotation. The author labored under the disadvantages 
of not understanding the language in which all the original records 
both printed and in manuscript are written ; of having little or no 





23 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition, , 1785-30. 

familiarity with nautical surveying or cartography; and of being 
apparently unacquainted with the best modern charts of the region. 
His criticisms of others are couched in very heated and not altogether 
pailiamentary language, and he is the victim of a narrow spirit of 
nationalism which is sometimes mistaken for patriotism. Nevertheless 
he has brought together a great deal of information: it is evident, in 
spite of his violent criticisms, that he has not intended to be unfair, 
since he puts on record in several instances evidence damaging to his 
own views which would not otherwise have come to light; and he has 
certainly exhibited Bering's valuable qualities in a manner which will 
do much towards rehabilitating his reputation.* 

Review : Bulletin of the American Geographical Society for 
1885. New York, the Society, 1885. pp. 285-298. 

This review forms part of a “Reply to criticisms upon the voyage of 
the Vega around Asia and Europe," by Baron A. E. von Nordenskiold, 
translated from the Swedish by Vere A. Elf wing. It is addressed only 
toward certain points in Lauridsen’s work, and contains valuable cor¬ 
rections of certain errors therein, and information in regard to the work 

* I may take opportunity in this place of replying to certain criticisms 
of Mr. Lauridsen on the chronological chapter of my work on Alaska 
and its Resources publishedsin 1870. 

That chapter was and was stated in its introductory paragraph to be 
a compilation from the authorities on the subject. It contained no 
original matter except that relating to explorations subsequent to 1865. 

For Bering’s kwo voyages I consulted the report on the Russian Dis¬ 
coveries printed by order of the Empress and under the auspices of the 
Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, prepared by the dis¬ 
tinguished geographer Muller, himself a member of the second expedi¬ 
tion and personally acquainted with the actors in those scenes. No 
more authoritative printed document exists on the subject. The sup¬ 
posed errors animadverted upon by Mr. Lauridsen are either taken 
directly from Muller, or are inferences drawn from his report. Some 
of them the critic has misunderstood or misconstrued, which from the 
necessarily extreme condensation of my table is particularly easy. The 
expression of surprise that Bering passed through Bering Strait without 
seeing the Diomedes, was warranted by the fact that Bering nowhere 
mentions their name or speaks of seeing any islands in their location, 
nor are they on his earliest printed charts. This point, however, will 
be more fully dealt with later. • If I were to re-write that chapter I 
should probably modify the criticisms of Bering’s character which 
appear in it; but at the time it was written I was fresh from four years’ 
exploration in the same region, and was particularly impressed with his 
failure to secure better results when to do so would have been so easy, 
as well as directly in the line of his duty. 






24 Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

v> * 

of Strahlenberg and the other early cartographers of Eastern Siberia. 
It is a translation of a paper published in Ymer for 1885, to which for 
exact accuracy reference should be made. 

Russian explorations, 1725-1743. Vitus Bering : the discov¬ 
erer of Bering Strait. By Peter Lauridsen (etc.). Revised by 
the author and translated from the Danish by Julius E. Olson 
(etc.). Chicago, S. C. Griggs & Company, 1889. 8° xvi, 223 

pp., 2 cuts, 2 folding sheets of maps. 

This edition is a good deal condensed, especially in the matter of 
references, and does not have all the illustrations of the original. There 
are also a good many slips or typographical errors, which affect its 
value as a work of reference. Some of those important in connection 
with the present paper are as follows : page 31, line 4, “ 60° 50' N. ” 
latitude should be “ 62° 50'.” On the last line of the same page “longi¬ 
tude” should be “latitude.” Page 32, after “ cloudy weather” in the 
second line from the bottom, the whole remaining record of August 
15th is omitted altogether. The sentence beginning “From noon” 
relates to August 16th, nautical reckoning. Page 33, line 5, “30° 19' 
east” should be “30° 17' east;” line 20 after “half west” should be 
inserted “south by east, by compass.” Page 51, line 4 from bottom, 
“latitude” should be “longitude.” 

Review : Nation (The) New York, vol. xlix, No. 1275, p. 454. 
Dec. 5, 1889. 

I may add that a number of references to Russian articles 
treating of Bering will be found in my Bibliography of charts 
and publications relating to Alaska and adjacent region, published 
by the U. S. Coast Survey in 1879. 





Review of Bering's First Expedition, 1725 - 30 . 


25 


Report of Fleet-Captain Bering on his Expedition to 
the Eastern Coast of Siberia. 

To the most Serene Sovereign, the high and powerful, the 
Empress of all the Russias : 

A short relation of the Siberian Expedition upon which was 
sent 

Of your Imperial Majesty the most humble servant and fleet- 
captain, W. I. Bering. 

On February 5 of the late year 1725 I received from her 
Imperial Majesty the Empress Ekaterina Alexievna, of happy 
and well-deserving memory, the autographic instructions of his 
Imperial Majesty Peter the Great, of happy and well-deserving 
memory, a copy of which is hereunto affixed. 

Instructions. 

(1.) There should be built on the Kamchatka [River], or at 
some other place adjacent, one or two boats with decks. 

(2.) With these boats [you are directed] to sail along the coast 
which extends northwards and which is supposed (since no one 
knows the end of it) to be continuous with America. 

(3.) And therefore [you are directed] to seek the point wffiere 
it connects with America and to go to some settlement under 
European rule, or if any European vessel is seen, learn of it what 
the coast visited is called, which should be taken down in writing, 
an authentic account prepared, placed on the chart and brought 
back here. 

The following were the instructions given me by the former 
General Admiral Count Apraxin, in which were written : “ Arti¬ 
sans, laborers and whatever, in my opinion, is necessary for the 
expedition, are to be demanded from the chancellor’s office of the 
government of Tobolsk and monthly reports sent to the Imperial 
Admiralty College.” 

Before receiving these instructions, January 24, a lieutenant 
and 26 men of my command had been ordered to service on the 
expedition by the Admiralty College with the necessary equip¬ 
ment for 25 wagons. The whole number of my command sent 
out amounted to 33 men who were ordered to Vologdie and from 
St. Petersburg to Tobolsk by a route which passed through the 
towns here named : through Yologdie, Totma, Upper Ustiuk, 




26 Review of Bering’s First Expedition, 17%5-30. 

Solwichergodsk, Kaigorodok, Solkamsk, V erkhoturia, Turinsk, 
Epanchin and Tinmen. 

On the 16th day of March we arrived at Tobolsk and were 
there until the 15th day of May because of the lateness of the 
season interfering with travel. During the delay at Tobolsk 
requisitions were made for the necessary outfit for the expedition. 

May 15th we left Tobolsk by water down the Irtish to Sama- 
rovska Yama, on four boats of the kind called by the Siberians 
“ dostcheniki,” on which were loaded all the outfit brought from 
St. Petersburg or obtained at Tobolsk ; together with a chaplain, 
commissary, sub-officers and thirty-four soldiers. 

I had previously sent a garde-marine officer, on a small boat 
furnished by the Tobolsk authorities in obedience to the orders of 
the Naval College, to the proper settlements where the prepara¬ 
tion of freight-boats had been ordered on the Yenisei and Uskut 
rivers, and I ordered him to sail to Yakutsk. 

From Samarovska Yama the Obi river was ascended to Surgut 
and to Narim, and thence the Ivet river to Makovska post. From 
Tobolsk to Makovska as we traveled live Ostiaks who were 
formerly idolaters, but, since the year 1715, through the labors of 
the Metropolitan of Tobolsk they have been converted to the 
true faith. From Makovska post to Yeniseisk the route lay over¬ 
land. From Yeniseisk to the Ilima-mouth we proceeded also in 
four boats by way of the Yenisei and Tunguska rivers. On the 
Tunguska there are three rapids and several shoals ; rapids be it 
understood where across the whole width of the river large rocks 
stand high in the water, with a passage only in one or two places; 
and shoals, similarly under water and above water but composed 
of small stones, alternate with rapids and with places where the 
water in the river is shallow for the distance of one or two versts, 
and which are not surmounted without a great deal of labor. 
From Yeniseisk in pursuance of orders from Tobolsk we took 
thirty men, carpenters and smiths. 

On the Ilima river, on account of rapids, bars and shoal water, 
the barges could not be taken to Ilimsk. For a certain distance 
only small canoes were available, for which reason the heaviest 
part of the outfit was reserved to be sent by sledges in winter. 

Lieut. Spanberg, with a party of thirty-nine carpenters and 
laborers, went by land from Ilimsk by the Uskut to the river 
Lena, to prepare during the winter fifteen barges on which the 
command and its equipment should be floated down to Yakutsk. 



Review of Bering's First Expedition, 17<25-30. 27 

I remained with the rest of the party near Ilimsk just below the 
Uskut, because at Ilimsk there are few houses and on account of 
the difficulties involved in a winter journey to Yakutsk, from the 
deficiencies of transportation, the deep snow and the severe cold, 
which prevented us from proceeding. 

To these reasons [was added] the necessity, according to the 
orders from the authorities at Tobolsk, of drawing the provisions 
for the expedition from Irkutsk and from Ilimsk down to Yakutsk 
because at the latter place grain is not cultivated. During our 
wintering at Ilimsk I made a sledge journey to Irkutsk to advise 
with the local Yoivod who had previously been Voivod at Ya¬ 
kutsk and who understood what would be needed by us in trans¬ 
porting our outfit from Yakutsk to Okhotsk and Kamchatka, 
since I did not possess any actual information in regard to that 
region. During the last days of winter travel I went over to the 
Uskut and obtained from Irkutsk twenty additional carpenters 
and smiths for the work of the expedition and two coopers from 
Ilimsk. 

On the Tunguska, Ilima and Lena rivers to the Vitim live the 
so-called Tunguses, people who own reindeer which they use as 
draught animals, while those who do not own deer live near the 
rivers on fish and travel in canoes made of birch bark. These 
people are idolaters. 

From Uskutsk on fifteen barges, in the spring of 1726 , we 
descended the Lena to Yakutsk. From the river Vitim down to 
the Lena, on both banks live Yakuts with a smaller proportion of 
Tunguses. The Yakuts possess herds of cattle, plenty of horses 
and cows by which they subsist, and are contented with the 
product of their herds, depending but little on fish except where 
their cattle are too few. They pay an idolatrous reverence to 
the sun and moon as well as to birds, such as the swan, eagle and 
crow. They also hold in great honor their own fortunetellers, 
known hereabouts as shamani , each of whom owns small idols or 
figures which they call shaitan. By their own account these 
people are of Tartar origin. 

On reaching Yakutsk in boats I required the aid of all the 
people of my command. Thirteen flat-bottomed barges which 
had been constructed at Uskutsk, under Lieut. Spanberg, pro¬ 
ceeded by water on the Lena down to the Aldan to ascend that 
river, the Maya and the upper Yudoma. Such a cargo could 
hardly have been transported to that distance overland on horse- 


J 



28 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 1725-30. 


back where but little in the way of subsistence was obtainable 
from land or water. The Cross of Yudoma might only be reached 
with great difficulty, but if successful the expense would be less 
than if the material had been carried on the backs of horses. I 
myself with a few people crossed from Yakutsk to Okhotsk with 
pack horses, as is the general custom. The load or pack taken is 
only about five puds to one horse, less than by the telega [ordi¬ 
nary cart], the deep mire and high mountains to be traversed not 
permitting more, though my supplies amounted to 1600 puds. 
At the post called Okhotsk is a Russian village of only ten houses, 
and Lieut. Chirikoff was left to winter at Yakutsk with orders to 
come overland to the Okhotsk post in the spring. 

In the last days of December, 1726, a message asking for assist¬ 
ance was received from Lieut. Spanberg, who had been dispatched 
by the river, saying that the boats had failed to get within 450 
versts of Yudoma Cross and were frozen in on the Gorbeh River, 
where he was transporting by sledges a cargo of outfit indispen¬ 
sable to our party. I sent at once, from among those who were 
wintering with me at the post of Okhotsk, a party with dogs and 
supplies and brought in the Lieutenant to the post on the first 
day of January, 1727, but without any of the outfit, he having 
left the Gorbeh river November 4th, 1726. His command had 
been obliged by hunger to eat the flesh of their horses and even 
the rawhide harness, the skin of their fur clothing and the 
untanned uppers of their shoes. Their cargo was all left at four 
different places along the route, which lay through uninhabited 
country. The only addition to their means which they had been 
able to secure, was some of our own flour, to the’amount of 150 
puds, which on my overland journey I had been obliged to leave 
near Yudoma Cross on account of the death of some of my pack- 
horses. 

Along the rivers Aldan and Maia live Yakuts of the same stock 
as those of the Lena and Yudoma rivers. But near and around 
the post of Okhotsk wander the seaside Tunguses and some 
Lamuts with their herds and many reindeer, who travel about 
winter and summer where their deer can find pasturage ; and 
some pedestrian Tunguses who live near the sea and rivers and 
are professional fishermen as among the Yakuts. 

February 1, ninety men with some dogs and sledges were col¬ 
lected and sent under Lieut. Spanberg to bring in the outfit left 
behind by the Yudoma river, and by the 1st of April about half 




29 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

of it had been transported safely to Okhotsk. Since more re¬ 
mained I sent twenty-seven men to Yudoma Cross to bring over 
the rest of the material on pack-horses from that place, who 
returned in May. 

In this region in winter time from Yakutsk to Okhotsk and 
other distant places people always travel on foot in parties of 
eight or ten, hauling their own sledges after them. Those be¬ 
longing to our command, when sent from Gorbeh to Okhotsk, 
brought down ten or fifteen puds or more, the snow being seven 
feet deep in places and travelers in winter being obliged to dig 
out a camp every evening, down to the ground to keep warm. 

June 30, Lieut. Spanberg in his newly built vessel sailed across 
the sea to the port of Bolsheretsk with a cargo of outfit and sup¬ 
plies and the material for the shipbuilders and workmen of our 
command, sent to Kamchatka to get out the timbers for a vessel, 
being ordered to return again for us. 

July 3d, Lieut. Chirikoff arrived from Yakutsk with 2300 puds 
of flour, according to my instructions. 

August 21, we loaded the new vessel which had returned from 
the land of Kamchatka, and another old boat which had been at 
Bolsheretsk, with the flour, and the whole command then at 
Okhotsk proceeded across the sea to Bolsheretsk. The ofticer 
who had been left to guard the provisions which had not arrived 
from the wintering place on the Gorbeh river was directed to float 
them down again and take a receipt from the authorities at Ya¬ 
kutsk and endeavor, the following year, to deliver to the com¬ 
mand in Kamchatka some part of the provisions, iron and tar. 

It was necessary to take the supplies from the mouth of the 
[Bolshoia] river to the post of Bolsheretsk by Avater in small 
boats. At the post were fifteen houses inhabited by Russians. 
For the ascent of the shallow river small boats had been built as 
I desired that the outfit and the most necessary part of the pro¬ 
visions should be transported to the upper Kamchatka post, a dis¬ 
tance of 120 versts by water. The transportation between Bol¬ 
sheretsk and Upper and Lower Kamchatka in winter Avas entirely 
carried on by the use of the native dogs. Every evening it is 
necessary to dig out the camp in the snow, in order to get shelter 
from whirlwinds of snow AAdiich in this region are called poorga. 
If one makes camp in an open place free from snow, these snow 
squalls are liable to overwhelm the party and they may perish. 


30 Review of Bering's First Expedition, 1785-30. 

At Upper Kamchatka there are seventeen and at Lower Kam¬ 
chatka fifty houses, at another place [Middle Kamchatka] where 
there is a church are fifteen houses, and in all these settlements 
there are not over 150 Russian subjects, who live by the collec¬ 
tion of the yassak [tribute money], beside those who were brought 
to the country on our expedition. 

In coming over to Bolsheretsk we brought 300 puds of whale 
blubber obtained from a whale cast up by the sea, which served 
us as money, together with the Circassian tobacco which is here 
commonly so used. 

In the southern part of Kamchatka live Kuriles, in the northern 
part Kamchadales, whose language, is peculiarly their own with 
but few introduced words. Of these people some are idolaters, 
others believe in nothing and are strangers to all honesty. The 
Russians who live in Kamchatka and the indigenes grow no grain 
and have no domestic animals except draught dogs. They dress 
and subsist upon what they can get, principally fish, roots and 
berries, in summer time wild fowl and large marine animals. At 
present in the wilderness of Yakutsk, the convent, which is of the 
same age as the Kamchatka churches, cultivates barley, hemp and 
turnips. Here only turnips are grown by the people of the three 
settlements, but they grow very large, in Russia they are smaller, 
here there may be four turnips to a pud. I brought with me on 
my journey some rye which was sowed around the establishments 
near us, but whether it ripened or not I did not ascertain. The 
frost strikes early into the ground in this region and the absence 
of cattle renders it difficult for the people to plow. 

The natives described and from whom the vassak [tribute] is 
collected, belong to the Russian Empire and are all savages. 
They are known for their dirt and bad passions. If a woman or 
any animal brings forth twins then one of them is smothered, the 
hour it is born, and it is regarded as a great fault if one does not 
smother one of the two. 

The Kamchadales are very superstitious. If there is any one 
who is very ill, even a father or mother, or near the point of 
death, they will carry them out into the woods and leave them 
without nourishment for a week together whether it be winter or 
summer, from which treatment many die. The dead are not cov¬ 
ered with earth but are dragged out and left to be eaten by dogs. 
The house of a man who has died is abandoned. Among the 
Kariak people it is the custom to burn the body ^although this is 
forbidden. 





Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 


31 


By the time of our arrival at the Lower Kamchatka post the 
ship-timber for our vessel was in large part prepared, and upon 
the 4th of April, 1728, was put upon the stocks for the vessel, 
which, with God’s help, was finished by the 10th of July, the tim¬ 
ber being hauled by dogs. Tar was made from the native tree 
which is called Bistvennik [spruce], since the tar which we should 
have brought with us had not arrived. 

Before this it was not known here that tar could be obtained 
from the native trees. So also for the sea voyage, the deficiency 
of spirit made from grain was supplied by a liquor distilled from 
herbs, and salt was made by boiling sea water. To increase our 
store of sea provisions, in place of cow’s butter, fat was tried out 
from fish, in place of meat fish was salted. The vessel was pro¬ 
visioned with everything needful for forty men for a year. On 
the 14th day of July we went out of the mouth of the Kamchatka 
river into the sea, in obedience to the autographic orders given 
me by his Imperial Majesty Peter the Great, as the map con¬ 
structed for that purpose will show. 

August 8th, having arrived in north latitude 64° 30', eight men 
rowed to us from the shore in a skin-boat, enquiring from whence 
we came and what was our business there. They said they were 
Chukchi, (whom the Russians of these parts have long known) 
and as we lay to they were urged to come to the vessel. They 
inflated some floats made of sealskin and sent one man swimming 
to us to talk, then the boat came up to the vessel and they told us 
that on the coast lived many of their nation; that the land not 
far from there takes a decided turn to the westward, and they 
also said that at no great distance from where we were, we should 
see an island. This proved true, but we saw nothing valuable 
upon it except huts. This island in honor of the day we named 
St. Lawrence, but we were not able to see any people upon it, 
though an officer was sent in a boat from the vessel on two occa¬ 
sions to look for inhabitants. 

On the 15th of August we arrived in the latitude of 67° 18' and 
I judged that we had clearly and fully carried out the instructions 
given by his Imperial Majesty of glorious and ever deserving 
memory, because the land no longer extended to the north. 
Neither from the Chukchi coast nor to the eastward could any 
extension of the land be observed. If we should continue on our 
course and happen to have contrary winds we could not get back 
to Kamchatka before the close of navigation and might be 



32 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 1725-30. 


obliged to winter in that region, not only without a harbor, but 
where no fuel could anywhere be obtained, where the native peo¬ 
ple do not acknowledge the authority of the Russian government, 
but are wholly independent and united against us in refusing to 
pay tribute. 

From the mouth of the Kamchatka river and all the way to 
this place along the seacoast wind elevated mountains, resembling 
a wall in steepness, and from which the snow does not disappear 
in summer. 

On the 20th of August four canoes were observed rowing 
toward us, containing about forty people who were Chukchi of 
the same sort as those whom we had met before. They brought 
for sale meat, fresh water, fish, fox skins, of which fifteen were of 
the white fox, and four walrus teeth, which my people bought of 
them for needles and flint-and-steels. They said that some among 
them had been overland with reindeer to the Kolyma river and 
that they never went by sea to the Kolyma ; but, at a great dis¬ 
tance, by the seashore lived some of our people, born Russians, 
people whom they had known for a long time, and one of them 
said that he had been at the Anadyr post to trade. To other 
questions they gave the same answers as the Chukchi previously 
seen. 

On the 2d of September we entered the mouth of the Kam¬ 
chatka river and wintered at the post of Lower Kamchatka. 

On the 5th of June, 1729, having repaired the vessel which had 
been laid up, we went out of the mouth of the Kamchatka river 
and put to sea to the eastward, because the inhabitants of Kam¬ 
chatka declared that on fine days land could be seen across the sea. 
Though none of our own people had observed it, we went out to 
determine the authenticity of the information. We sailed nearly 
200 versts and saw not the slightest trace of land. We sailed 
around the south point of Kamchatka to the mouth of the Bol- 
shoia river, making a chart of this part which had not previously 
been delineated. From the mouth of the Bolshoia river we sailed 
across the sea to the post of Okhotsk having left at Lower Kam¬ 
chatka and at Bolsheretsk, out of the supplies received by us from 
the authorities of Yakutsk, flour, meal and dry salt meat to the 
amount of 800 puds. 

On the 23d of July the vessel reached the mouth of the 
Okhotsk river, where the outfit and supplies of the expedition 
were turned over to the governor and I, with my command, on 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 


33 


hired horses, crossed over to Yudoma Cross and thence in canoes 
down the Aldan river, crossing over at Belskoi and below, and 
carrying everything on pack horses over to Yakutsk. 

The whole journey occupied the time from Okhotsk, July 29th, 
to Yakutsk on the 29th of August. We remained in Yakutsk 
until September 3d, and from September 10th until October 1st 
traveled in two barges on the Lena when we were arrested by ice 
at the settlement of Peleduie. Here we were detained until the 
29th of October, by the absence of snow and the presence of small 
ice in the Lena. When the ice solidified we proceeded to Ilimsk 
and from Ilimsk to Yeniseisk on the Tunguska river, stopping at 
Russian settlements ; and from Yeniseisk to Tomsk with Russians 
and converted Tartars ; from Tomsk to Chausk Ostrog, Russian 
settlements ; from Chausk to Tari by the Barabinskoi steppe ; 
from Tari to Tobolsk by the Irtish river among the Tartars ; ar¬ 
riving at Tobolsk January 10, 1730. From Tobolsk for St. Peters¬ 
burg we left on the 25th of the same month, following the same 
route by which we originally reached Tobolsk from the capital. 
We arrived in St. Petersburg March 1, 1730. 


Note. —The extensive tabular itinerary covering two quarto 
pages, showing the details of the route traversed in going to 
Kamchatka, the distances and directions from point to point (ex¬ 
cept during the sea voyages), the native tribes in the region trav¬ 
ersed, etc.—is not reproduced, as it contains no information of 
importance in the present connection. The other table, showing 
the astronomical position estimated for the more important places 
is herewith transcribed. 

To get the approximate Greenwich longitude 67° should be 
added to the longitudes in the table which are reckoned from 
Tobolsk. 

I have provided a tabular itinerary, which shows the dates of 
the events of the expedition, derived from Bering’s Report and 
from other sources, which are indicated by letters. B stands for 
Brookes’ edition of Du Halde ; H for Campbell’s version in Har¬ 
ris ; M for Muller’s account; and L for Lauridsen. The astro¬ 
nomical events are taken from Oppolzer’s standard catalogue of 
solar and lunar eclipses. 

10 


VOL. II. 





34 


Review of Bering'’s First Expedition , 1785-30. 


It will be noted in the following tables there are a few discrep¬ 
ancies of single days compared with Lauridsen’s account or other 
authorities. These I take to be due to the use in the ship’s jour¬ 
nal of the nautical day in which the nautical second day of the 
month begins on the first calendar day at noon and ends at noon 
on the second calendar day, so that events occurring during the 
first twelve hours of the nautical day would have a date one day 
later than the true calendar date. 

Catalogue of the towns and notable Siberian places put on the 
chart through which the route passes, with their latitude 
and longitude, the latter computed from Tobolsk. 


Cities and Places. 


Latitude N. 


Long. E. of 
Tobolsk. 


Tobolsk.... 

Samarofska Yama ... 

Town of Surgut.. 

Town of Narim. 

Ketskoi post ... 

Losinoborski convent. 

Makoffska post.. 

Yeniseisk. 

Kashirn convent. 

House of Simakhina, Ilima river mouth 

Ili rusk.... 

Ust Kutskoi post. 

Kirinski post...... 

Yakutsk.... 

Okhotsk post.... 

Mouth of Bolshoia river, Kamchatka_ 

Upper Kamchatka post___ 

Lower Kamchatka post.. 

Mouth of Kamchatka river. 

Cape St. Thaddeus.... 

West cape, Holy Cross bay. 

East cape, Holy Cross bay... 

Preobrazhenia bay.. 

Chukotski cape, east end... 

St. Lawrence island... 

St. Diomede island..... 

Place from which we turned back. 

South cape of Kamchatka.. 


58° 

05' 

00° 

00' 

60 

17 

00 

30 

60 

51 

5 

18 

58 

48 

14 

35 

58 

19 


_* 

58 

17 

— 

_* 

58 

03 

23 

13 

58 

20 

25 

12 

58 

37 

32 

00 

57 

25 

35 

16 

56 

40 

36 

44 

56 

40 

38 

26 

57 

50 

41 

01 

62 

08 

57 

53 

59 

13 

76 

07 

52 

42 

89 

51 

54 

48 

— 

_* 

56 

11 

— 

_* 

56 

03 

96 

10 

62 

20 

111 

32 

65 

35 

115 

15 

65 

28 

115 

37 

65 

01 

120 

30 

64 

25 

122 

55 

64 

00 

122 

55 

66 

00 

125 

42 

67 

18 

126 

07 

51 

10 

89 

51 


* These longitudes absent from Bering’s own report are supplied by 
Campbell in his list, probably from the chart. 


In the Table of positions the addition of 67° will reduce the 
longitudes to E. of Greenwich. It is probably from this table 
that Dr. Campbell derived his list, in Harris, which is, barring 











































Itinerary for Bering’s First Expedition. 


Dates corrected to ordinary calendar , beginning at midnight. 


1725. 

Authorities. 

Date. 

Old Style. 

Date. 

New Style. 

Advance party under Chirikoff left 
St. Petersburg_ _ 

H. L. 

Jan. 24. 

Feb. 4. 

Bering followed. 

B. L. M. 

Feb. 5. 

Feb. 16. 

Bering arrived at Tobolsk _.. 

B. H. L. M. 

Mar. 16. 

Mar. 27. 

Bering left Tobolsk__ 

Bering. 

May 15. 

May 27. 

Bering arrived at Ilimsk, where 
they spent the winter of 1725-6.. 

L. 

Sept. 29. 

Oct. 10. 

Lunar eclipse obs. at Ilimsk_ 

Chirikoff. 

Oct. 10. 


1(26. 

Bering arrived at Yakutsk_ 

L. 

Mid. June. 

End June. 

Bering left Yakutsk_ .. 

L. 

Aug. 16. 

Aug. 27. 

Bering reached Okhotsk. .. 

Bering’s provision train arrived at 
Okhotsk... 

L. 

Sept. 30. 

Oct. 11. 

L. 

End Oct. 

Mid. Nov. 

1 i 27. 

Span berg reached 0 k h otsk (Ja n. 6, L). 

M. H. 

Jan. 1. 

Jan. 12. 

Vessel Fortune launched at Okhotsk 

L. 

June 8. 

June 19. 

Spanberg sailed for Bolshoia river. 

M. H. L. 

June 30. 

July 11. 

Chirikoff arrived at Okhotsk. . ... 

B. M. L. 

July 3. 

July 14. 

Spanberg returned with Fortuna .. 

L. 

Aug. 11. 

Aug. 22. 

Bering and party sailed for Bolshoia 
river (Lauridsen says August 19). 

B. M. H. 

Aug. 21. 

Sept. 1. 

Bering arrived at Bolshoia river... 

M. 

Sept. 2. 

Sept. 13. 

Bering arrived at Bolsheretsk___ 

L. 

Sept. 4. 

Sept. 15. 

1 i «38. 

Partial eclipse of moon, visible in 
Kamchatka, last contact 7 h 41 m 
P. M.___ 

Oppolzer. 

Feb. 14. 

Feb. 25. 

Bering arrived at Lower Kam¬ 
chatka ..... 

L. 

March 11. 

Mar. 22. 

Vessel Gabriel put on the stocks... 

B. H. M. 

April 4. 

April 15. 

The Gabriel launched (Lauridsen 
says she sailed to the mouth of 
the river July 9).... 

B. H. M. 

June 10. 

June 21. 

The expedition left the river to 
commence explorations.. 

B. IJ. L. 

Julv 13. 

July 24. 

The expedition sailed northward .. 

M. 

July 14. 

July 25. 

Bering reached his northernmost 
point and started on his return .. 

M. H. B. L. 

Aug. 15. 

Aug. 26. 

They readied the Kamchatka river 
on their return.. 

H. L. 

Sept. 2. 

Sept. 13. 

1729. 

Total eclipse of the moon, visible in 
this region, beginning at 6 h 06 m 
A. M. __ _ .... 

Oppolzer. 

Feb. 2. 

Feb. 13. 

Bering sailed E. from Kamchatka 
river (Lauridsen says July, which 
is erroneous)_... ..... 

M. H. 

June 5. 

June 16. 

Bering steered to the southwest_ 

L. 

June 8. 

June 19. 

The party arrived at Bolsheretsk — 


Julv 2. 

July 13. 

Bering sailed for Okhotsk_ 

L. 

July 14. 

July 25. 

Bering arrived at Okhotsk_ 

M. Ber. 

July 23. 

Aug. 3. 

Bering left Okhotsk_ 

H. 

July 29. 

Aug. 9. 

Total eclipse of the moon same day, 
but not visible in this part of Asia 

Oppolzer. 

July 29. 

Aug. 9. 

1730. 

Bering arrived at St. Petersburg... 

H. M. B. L. 

March 1. 

Mar. 12. 

































36 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 17*25-30. 


some additions, errors, and mistranslations, much the same. As 
Bering does not give any longitude for Lower Kamchatka post it 
is highly improbable that he observed it at that place, by means 
of a lunar eclipse or otherwise. 

Chirikoff’s observation of a lunar eclipse at Ilimsk made that 
point 30° 13' east longitude from Tobolsk or, approximately, 
97° 13' east from Greenwich. His pedometric observations placed 
Ilimsk in 103° 44' E. Gr. On recent charts Ilimsk is in about 
104° E. Gr., so that the eclipse observation was in error about 6^- 
degrees. The meridian used on the voyage of 1728 was that of 
Lower Kamchatka, based on pedometric observations from Ilimsk 
computed by means of a traverse table. These, according to 
Chirikoff’s journal, gave for the Lower Kamchatka post a meridian 
of 126° 0T 49" east from St. Petersburg or about 156° 02' east 
from Greenwich, which is in error about six and a quarter 
degrees. Discarding the eclipse observation and using only the 
pedometric observations from Tobolsk to Lower Kamchatka the 
result for that place is 162° 33' E. Gr., which is very near the 
truth. I have no doubt that this result is what was finally used 
in the chart (though not in the original report) and, therefore, 
that all the observations of Lauridsen and others in regard to the 
alleged eclipse in Kamchatka are based on a misunderstanding 
and without value. 


Synopsis of the Voyage. 

The dates are reduced to the Julian calendar from the nautical 
account. The longitude is stated in degrees east from Greenwich. 

June 10/21, 1728. The vessel, which was named the Gabriel, 
was launched at the Lower Kamchatka fort and loaded with a 
year’s supply of provisions for forty men (B. C. H. M.). She 
resembled the packet boats used in the Baltic. 

Notes— This vessel was constructed of the Kamchatkan spruce, a 
species according to Kittlitz closely resembling Abies canadensis of 
America. There is also a smaller species, A. mertensiana, and by dis¬ 
tillation of these two trees the deficiency in their supply of tar or pitch 
was made up. The rigging, sail-cloth, oakum and anchors had been 
transferred with great labor from Tobolsk. The planking and timbers 
were doubtless fastened with trenails and not with spikes, so the 
amount of iron used was much smaller than it would be in most 
modern vessels. The provisioning of the expedition is the subject 
of a fanciful paragraph garbled from Bering’s original report, which 



Review of Berincfs First Expedition , 1725-30. 


37 


lias been quoted by every one of the historians of the voyage from 
D’Anville to Lauridsen. I transcribe it from Brooke’s translation of 
1736, pp. 437-8. 

“ The provisions consisted of Carrots for want of Corn (=grain or 
wheat), the fat of Fish uncured served instead of Butter and salt fish 
supplied the place of all other meats.” 

Campbell in Harris’ Voyages, p. 1020, still further enlarges this state¬ 
ment and Lauridsen puts it 

“ Fish oil was his butter and dried fish his beef and pork. Salt he 
was obliged to get from the sea,” and “he distilled spirits from ‘sweet 
straw.’” 

This gives a totally false idea of the supplies provided for the expedi¬ 
tion. Bering received from Yakutsk over forty-two tons of flour, and 
large numbers, fifty at a time, of the small Siberian cattle were driven 
on the hoof to Okhotsk where their flesh was partly dried and partly 
salted. On his return he delivered surplus supplies to the proper 
officers in Kamchatka and at Okhotsk ever 30,000 lbs. of meal, flour 
and salt meat. There were at that time no carrots to be had in Kam¬ 
chatka as Bering himself testifies. Salted salmon then as now, formed 
a staple article of diet in Kamchatka and was without doubt included 
in his stores. The delicate fat obtained by boiling the bellies of the 
salmon, is annually prepared in Kamchatka and is regarded to this 
day as a great delicacy (cf. Voyage of the Marchesa, 2d edition, p. 135.) 
A store of it might without any hardship be furnished to the comman¬ 
der for use as butter. Salt he obtained as it is usually obtained by 
evaporating sea-water, and the absence of strong drink of European 
origin was supplied by a distillation of the stalks of the bear’s foot or 
“ sweet herb” of the Cossacks (Heracleum dulce Kittlitz), long used for 
that purpose by the Russians in Siberia and from which, even in 
modern times, according to Seemann, the Kamchadales secured addi¬ 
tions to their scanty supply of syrup or sugar. 

The supplies then of the expedition, were not inferior to those in 
common use at sea at that period, and as far as health is concerned 
were certainly less likely to result in an invasion of scurvy than the 
use of salt beef and pork alone would have been. 

It must be remembered that the fare on naval vessels all over the 
world in those days, was rude and coarse to a degree now long unknown 
and that it was not until the voyages of Cook, nearly half a century 
later, that the antiscorbutic and varied regimen, now usually enforced 
by law in maritime nations, was even thought of. 

The force crowded together on the little Gabriel is enumerated by 
Lauridsen presumably from the account of Bergh. 

It consisted beside the commander, of Lieutenants Martin Spanberg 
and Alexie Chirikoff; Second Lieutenant Peter Chaplin, Doctor Nieman, 
a quartermaster, eight sailors, a worker in leather, a rope maker, five 
carpenters, a boatswain, two cossacks with a drummer and nine 
marines, six servants, stewards, etc., and two Kariak interpreters, a 
cabin boy and a pilot, in all forty-four persons. 



38 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

It is not clear from Lauridsen’s account whether in the above list are 
or are not included the two mates, Richard Engel and George Morison, 
or the cartographer Potiloff, who started with Bering from St. Peters¬ 
burg. Luzhin was left behind, being ill. 

July 13/24. The variation of the compass was determined to 
be 13° 10' easterly (L.). In the afternoon (being the 14th nauti¬ 
cal reckoning) the vessel left the Kamchatka river. (B. C. H.) 
They steered to the northeast along the coast, which was kept in 
sight to the north and west, in from nine to twelve fathoms 
water. As the point of departure Cape Kamchatka was deter¬ 
mined to be in north latitude 56° 3' (M. L.) 

Notes .—The variation of the compass in 1885 was 2 30' easterly 

(Schott). As will be seen by the Table of Positions, the latitude above 
given for the cape is not the same as that adopted by Bering on his 
chart. The depth mentioned shows that the Gabriel must have kept 
within a few T miles, probably not exceeding ten, from the shore and 
the very slow progress made, as indicated by the log, not much exceed¬ 
ing two miles an hour gives rise to the suspicion that, in the early part 
of the voyage, in order to keep their survey continuous, they probably 
lay to during the hours of darkness. Off Karaginski Island the varia¬ 
tion of the compass was determined to be the same as at the mouth of 
the Kamchatka river. 

From this date to the 27tli, the accessible authorities give no data, 
and the expedition probably pursued its way uneventfully. 

This day a prominent Cape was passed at a distance 

of some three miles. [it was named St. Thaddeus, after the 
saint on whose holy day it was again seen on the return voyage.] 
Many grampus, porpoises, seals and sealions were seen (L.). 

Notes .—This Cape St. Thaddeus is not the cape of the same name on 
modern charts, but the cape now known as Cape Navarin. This is 
evident from Bering’s chart. Bering’s position for the cape is in error 
about fifteen miles in latitude and three degrees in longitude on his 
chart, while in the list of positions, the error is only about five miles of 
latitude and half a degree in longitude. 

From near Cape Thaddeus Bering stood across Anadyr Gulf, out 
of sight of the low land, missing Anadyr Bay, and thereby falling 
into the error of placing on his chart the mouth of the Anadyr River 
south of the cape. The error was subsequently corrected by G. F. 
Muller. 

Lauridsen observes (American edition, p. 30), that “having sailed 
past the Anadyr River without quite being able to find their bearings, 
in regions of which they had not a single astronomical determination,” 


Review of Berinfs First Expedition , 1725-30 . 


39 


etc. This is absurd. They had a compass and there is no reason why 
they should not find their bearings, and it is certain they were there 
to make observations and not to verify those already made. No 
apology is needed for Bering’s determination to press more rapidly 
northward. It was in accordance with common sense, considering the 
lateness of the season and the uncertainty of what they had to accom¬ 
plish before the season closed. 

Aug. 1 12. Festival of the Holy Cross. The expedition saw 
land to the northward and soon after entered a great bay which 
they named Holy Cross Bay. This they explored to the river at 
its head which they named Bolshoia (Great) River, and on the 
western point of entrance the latitude was, Aug. 2 13, observed 
to be 65° 35' north, while the longitude by dead reckoning was 
estimated at 182° 15' east of Greenwich, and the magnetic varia¬ 
tion f of a point easterly. 

Notes .—Lauridsen says (p. 31, American edition) that in Holy Cross 
Bay the Gabriel spent two days under sail in search of fresh water and 
a place to anchor.” This is extremely singular, as there is an 
anchorage immediately at the entrance to the bay, on the starboard 
hand, and runs of fresh water are abundant. The application of an 
obvious correction* to the list of positions given by Campbell makes 
the position at the western elbow or spit, at the mouth of Holy Cross 
Bay, that which is given above. This position is over a degree too far 
Tvest and over six miles too far south. But Lauridsen (quoting Camp¬ 
bell without observing the blunder?) not stating the source of his 
information, gives a position (N. Lat. 62° 509 which is two hundred and 
twelve miles too far south and the English translation improves upon 
this by making it 60° 509 or three hundred and thirty two miles south 

* In Harris’ Voy., 2d ed., ii, p. 1021, Bering’s table of positions is 
printed : 

Nischuvi Kamschatska Oostrog, (N. Lat.) 56° 11' (Lon. E. Tobolsk), 98° 30' 
The Mouth of the river of the Apostle Thacleus and the 


Cape..... 56° 03', 96° 10' 

The Elbow of the river Swetoi Krest . 62° 20', 111° 32' 

Eastern Point. 65 c 35', 115° 15' 

This should read, errors and misplacements corrected : 

Lat. Long-. 

Nizhni Kamschatsk Ostrog... 56 11', 95° 30 / 

The mouth of the River (Kamchatka).. 56° 03/ 96 10' 

The Cape of the Apostle Thaddeus - 62 c 20', 111" 32' 

The western cape (or spit) of Svietoi Krest Bay.65° 35', 115° 15' 


The words in parentheses are added by the writer for clearness. It is 
somewhat surprising that in using this table nobody seems to have 
recognized these errors. 









40 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 1725-30. 


of the truth, or two hundred and sixty-five miles south of the entrance 
to the bay as platted on Bering’s own chart. 

Bering’s table in his report and Bering’s chart as printed by D’Anville 
differ from each other fifteen miles in latitude and two degrees and 
twenty-five minutes or nearly seventy-five miles in longitude. The 
chart is the more correct, but it differs more than thirty miles in lati¬ 
tude and nearly a degree in longitude from the modern observations of 
Liitke and Rodgers for the same locality. After leaving Holy Cross Bay, 
the voyage was continued to the southeast along the “ high and rocky 
coast” of which Lauridsen (probably paraphrasing Bergli) says that 
“ every indentation was very carefully explored.” This is obviously a 
flight of fancy, since a good part of this coast is low and sandy, while 
there is no indication of two excellent harbors which it affords, on any 
of the charts of Bering or his successors in that century. 

Aug. 6 17, 1728. This day, the festival of the Transfiguration, 
found the Gabriel entering a small bay, which on that account 
was named Transfiguration (Preobrazhenia) Bay. Here they 
anchored (L.). Lieutenant Chaplin was sent ashore for water 
and found native huts but no people. 

Notes .—This bay has never been surveyed, and on the best modern 
charts is merely indicated, while on many others it is omitted altogether 
or the name transferred to the anchorage north of Cape Bering or to 
Plover Bay. Bering’s position for the spit at the entrance of Transfigu¬ 
ration Bay is two degrees and a quarter too far east and sixteen miles 
too far north by the table, but his chart gives the position much more 
closely, with a difference from Rodgers’ chart of not exceeding five 
miles. 

Aug. 7 18. They proceeded along the coast in a south-south- 
easterly direction. 

Note .—The total eclipse of the moon of this date could hardly have 
been observed by Bering, since the moon must have been close to the 
horizon and first contact of the shadow occurred only about five minutes 
before the moon set. As Bering does not mention it, it is not likely 
that he noted the eclipse. 

Aug. 8/19. At seven in the morning a skin-boat (umiak or 
bidarra) was observed to be launched from the shore, eight men 
getting into it and rowing toward the vessel (B.). They 
approached within hail, and were understood, through the aid of 
the Kariak interpreters on board the Gabriel, to enquire whence 
the vessel came and what was the object of the expedition in 
entering these waters. After much persuasion one of the natives 
left the skin-boat and swam, sustaining himself on two inflated 


41 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

seal-skins tied by a pole, to the Gabriel and came on board and 
the others, seeing that no harm befel him, came nearer the vessel 
shortly afterward (M. B. C.). The interpreters had some difficulty 
in understanding all the natives said, but it was gathered from 
their conversation that these people called themselves Chukchi 
(or by an analogous name) ; that they were acquainted with the 
Russians, by report or otherwise, that there were numerous settle¬ 
ments of their people along this shore ; that the Anadyr River lay 
far to the west (L.) ; that to the south and east lay an island which 
would soon be visible to the people on the Gabriel if they continued 
on the course they were then steering ; that in the vicinity of this 
island the shore of the mainland changes its direction and extends 
beyond to the north and then to the westward (B. M. C. H.). 
1 he man who had boarded the vessel was given some presents and 
sent back to the native boat, in the hope that he would persuade 
his comrades to come on board the Gabriel, but, suspecting some 
evil design, the natives pulled away toward the shore and disap¬ 
peared. According to Bergli, Chaplin’s journal expresses regret 
that more important information could not be obtained owing to 
the difficulty in interpreting what was said by the Chukchi. At 
noon the latitude was estimated to be 64° 30'. In the afternoon 
the cape mentioned by the Chukchis was seen. 

Notes .—The account given in Bering’s report, and variously rendered 
by Muller, Brooks, D’Anville and Campbell, differs in several details 
from that given in Chaplin's journal and described by Bergh and Lau- 
ridsen. The various English versions of both fail in clearly rendering the 
important point gained by this interview with the natives, which was, 
that, at a short distance, the main coast changes its direction and 
turps to the north and west. These Chukchis pointed the way to the 
strait for the party on the Gabriel, and their account proved to be 
accurate in every particular. 

The people of this part of the coast call themselves Tsau-chu , which 
is their tribal name. The similar name of another branch living near 
the Anadyr River has been corrupted into the word Chuk-chi, by the 
Russians, from which we derive our general name for these people. 
Lauridsen says “ Breden var 64° 41'” which in the American edition 
stands, “the longitude (sic) was 64° 4T.” But the original and all the 
variants of Bering’s own report make the latitude 64° 30' which is 
correct. If it had been 64" 41' they would have been north of their own 
position for Transfiguration Bay, from which their course had been 
S.S.E.. therefore the 41' is certainly erroneous. 

On Bering's chart he refers to the point of the coast where the shore 
changes its direction under the name Chukotskago Noss, which means 
the promontory of the Chukchi, though this is not the same as the 



42 


Review of Bering's First Expedition, 17*25—SO. 

Chukchi Cape of the Anadyr Cossacks, who so denominated the eastern 
extreme of Asia, which they knew from report and by the voyage of 
Deshneff. There can be no reasonable doubt that Bering named his cape 
after the people who had described it to him, although the imperfections 
of the record leave this to be inferred. Bering’s map gives the latitude 
of the south extreme of the cape, as about 64° 02', and it is erroneously 
represented as extending south of the latitude of the northwest end of 
St. Lawrence Island. Its real latitude is about fifteen miles further 
north. Cook made it 64° 13'. Chaplin’s journal (according to Laurid- 
sen) makes it 64 18', which would agree with the latest surveys very 
nearly, though the coincidence must be regarded as a happy accident 
in view of their imperfect tables, instruments and methods. Bering’s 
report places its eastern extreme in 64 25' and (wrongly) in the same 
longitude as the west end of St. Lawrence Island. 

Aug. 10/21. St. Lawrence’s day. The island referred to by 
the Chukchi was seen and the vessel stood toward it, about two 
o’clock in the afternoon. Twice, an officer with a four-oared boat 
was sent to reconnoiter the coast more closely, but he saw only 
what appeared to be huts without inhabitants (C.). The island 
(of which only the northwest hilly portion was seen, owing to the 
hazy weather) was named after the patron saint of the day and 
the course of the vessel was changed to the northward. 

Aug. 11 22. At noon the latitude was estimated at 64° 20', and 
at sunset an attempt was made by the determination of the 
magnetic variation to get the longitude (L.). 

Notes .—An illustration of the want of care with which Lauridsen has 
weighed his comments, it may be pointed out that he claims (p. 32, Am. 
Ed.) that on reaching latitude 64° 20' the Gabriel was in Bering Strait, 
while two pages later, on her return southward, he declares her to 
have got out of the strait on reaching latitude 64° 27"! As a matter of 
fact, at the present day, the whalers and traders of this region consider 
that Cape Chaplin (more commonly known as Indian Point) forms the 
southwest point of entrance to the strait; and this point is situated in 
latitude 64° 25' and E. longitude 187° 40', as determined by the writer 
in 1880. This is perhaps the point referred to by Bering as the eastern 
point of his Chukotskoi Cape. 

The magnetic method of determining the longitude would give cor¬ 
rect results only accidentally, as previously explained. The result 
announced by Lauridsen for the present occasion is 25° 31' east from 
Lower Kamchatka Ostrog or 187° 51' east from Greenwich, which would 
be within a few miles of the latest determinations. But it is obvious 
from Bering’s map that he could not have made his position less than 
28° 45' east from Lower Kamchatka, and the position above given is 
perhaps an interpolation from modern sources, which has been misun¬ 
derstood or mistranslated. As Lauridsen has paraphrased, not quoted. 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 43 

it is impossible in the absence of Bergh's original to determine who is 
responsible for the incongruity. An interpolation seems the more likely 
since Bering himself gives the longitude as 189° 55' E. Gr.* 

Aug. 12/28. From noon of the 11th to noon of this day, the 
Gabriel sailed sixty-nine miles, but the difference of latitude was 
only 21 miles. The wind was light to fresh and the weather 
overcast (L.). 

botes .—If the above statement be taken literally with the assumption 
that they were at noon of the 11th in latitude 64° 20' and E. longitude 
188° from Greenwich, it would give their position for noon of the 12th 
as 64 c 49' and longitude 190° 45' E. Gr., which does not at all accord with 
the subsequently narrated course, etc. If we proceed on the hypothesis 
that it means that the log recorded 69 miles and that only 29 miles were 
made good (which might easily happen if the polar current were run¬ 
ning strong on the west side of the strait) and that their course was 
parallel with the Siberian shore in a general way they would have been, 
at noon of August 12tli, in latitude 64° 49' and longitude 188° E. Gr. or 
thereabouts, which agrees very fairly with the known circumstances. 

Aug. 13/24. A fresh breeze and cloudy weather. The Gabriel 
sailed the whole day with no land in sight and the difference in 
latitude was only 78 miles at noon, reckoned from noon of the 
12th. The wind diminished toward night. 

Notes .—On the same hypothesis as to the meaning of “ difference in 
latitude ” as the words are used by Lauridsen, the Gabriel at noon of 
the 13th would have been ten or twelve miles south from East Cape 
and in about latitude 65° 55'. If the words are to be taken literally, as 
a navigator would use them, the Gabriel would have been about fifteen 
miles to the northward and eastward of East Cape, which agrees much 
less with the subsequently detailed circumstances. With the nautical 
day beginning at noon on the 13th according to Lauridsen the weather 
began to be calm and cloudy which would check their progress. 

Aug. 14 25. This is the festival of Saint Demetrius of Africa. 

A current w r as experienced during this day which was estimated 

to have helped the vessel northward eight miles and three quarters. 

This current ran from south-southeast to north-northwest. From 

noon of the 13th to noon of this day the vessel sailed 29 miles in 

addition to the current drift. At noon the latitude was estimated 
% 

* A glance at Bergh shows that this statement of Lauridsen is simply 
a blunder. Bergh only says they obtained the magnetic variation 
(25° 3F easterly) by an amplitude observation ! Longitude is not men¬ 
tioned, nor Kamchatka. 



44 Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

to be 6G° 41' and high land was visible astern. At three o’clock 
in the afternoon high mountains were observed to the southward, 
which, says Chaplin, “were probably on the continent.” 

Notes .—Under any hypothesis either the run of the vessel was under¬ 
estimated or the latitude was overestimated. Adding the estimated 
run to the position attained under our hypothesis for the 12th and 13th 
it will put the Gabriel at noon, August 14th, in about north latitude 
66° 24' and longitude E. Gr. 191° 30'. Chaplin’s reckoning as given by 
Lauridsen would have put the Gabriel more than fifty miles off shore 
when the land spoken of would have been out of sight. Our hypothesis 
puts her about twenty-eight miles N.E. true from East Cape when the 
high land of either shore, under favorable circumstances, might have 
been seen even if the sky were overcast. Clouds do not interfere with 
seeing, unless attended by fog or haze. During this day the Gabriel 
had sailed between East Cape and the islands now known as the Dio- 
medes ; the shore being near by. Why then should it be noted in 
the log that “high land was seen astern” at noon? The high land of 
Siberia they had seen and sailed along for days in full sight of it. It 
seems to us that this excludes the idea that the log refers to the Siberian 
highland and that what was seen was the loom of land not before seen, 
as of the Diomedes or even of America. It may not have been clear to 
the commander and yet have been marked enough for the subordinate 
officer to have put it in his log, with the dead reckoning and daily 
notes.* On several old charts mention is made of land seen by Spanberg 
which is supposed to have been America, after Gwosdeff had confirmed 
the existence of the American mainland in that direction and Synd had 
landed upon it. This suggestion is not unimportant in connection with 
the subsequent conduct of Bering and will be referred to again in its 
proper connection. The further fact that all early printed versions of 
Bering’s list of positions, refer to the modern Diomedes only as the 
island of St. Demetrius and that this day was the festival of that 
obscure saint, lends further confirmation to the above suggestions. 

Aug. 15 26. The Gabriel appears to have continued to sail in 
a northeasterly direction until three o’clock in the afternoon, hav¬ 
ing been aided by the current to the extent of 8f miles and 
sailed 65 miles ; many whales were seen and the depth averaged 
between 23 and 36 fathoms. Since the 13th the water had 
appeared whitish or discolored. The wind was moderate and the 
weather cloudy. Between noon and three o’clock the vessel made 
seven miles against a head wind. The position of the Gabriel at 
that time was estimated to be in north latitude 67° 18' and 30° 17' 
east longitude from the town of Lower Kamchatka (0. corrected). 

“Lauridsen gets over the discrepancy by putting the word “still” 
before “seen" (Am. Ed., p. 41), but there is nothing in the original 
sources to confirm this view of the matter. 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725—,SO. 


45 


Note .—The nautical day Aug. 15 extending from noon of the 14th to 
noon of the 15th is altogether omitted from the American translation of 
Lauridsen’s book. The position for the turning point estimated by 
Chaplin is manifestly by dead reckoning, as the sky was cloudy. It 
was not adopted in the list of positions published by Campbell in Harris’ 
Voyages nor on Bering’s map. In the former the longitude lie adopts 
is 27° 37' east of Lower Kamchatka fort, and this agrees exactly with 
the point on the coast in Du Halde’s engraving of Bering’s map where 
the mountains cease to be put down near the shore, the point on the 
north coast of Siberia where Lauridsen, and Chaplin as quoted by him, 
say Bering did not go, and the point which has been generally regarded 
as Bering’s farthest! 

If we apply the distance and direction from Chaplin’s journal to the 
course of the Gabriel platted from his preceding data, literally, it will 
put the turning point of the voyage in N. latitude 67° 32' and E. longi¬ 
tude 193° 37' or thereabouts, which is about thirty-five miles off the 
American coast southwest from Cape Seppings. But if we do this the 
position is far from agreeing with Chaplin’s. By applying the hypo¬ 
thetical correction which we have heretofore used, the position would 
be in latitude 67° 24' and E. longitude 193° 15' from Greenwich or 31° 
east from Lower Kamchatka fort, agreeing more nearly with Chaplin. 
On the other hand the position off Cape Seppings agrees better with 
Chaplin’s figures for the remainder of the day. 

At this point the commander of the expedition determined to 
turn homeward. The Gabriel was put on a course S. by E. by 
compass (S. by W. ^ W. true, the variation allowed being 2^ 
points easterly) before a brisk seven knot breeze, making better 
time than is recorded for any part of her outward voyage. 

Notes .—Lauridsen says* that, in terminating the outward voyage, 
Bering “announced that as he had now accomplished his task it was 
his duty, according to his orders, to return.” Muller and other authori- 

* Bergh (p. 54) quotes Chaplin's journal, which says: “At three 
o’clock-Captain Bering announced : that it teas necessary for him, in 
spite of his instructions , to turn back , and put the vessel about with 
orders to steer S. by E. by compass.” The italics are Bergh’s, who 
adds that, in the journal of Lieut. Chirikoff, the same statement is made 
in the same words. I transliterate the italicized phrases according to 
the schedule for Russian letters published in Nature, Feb. 27, 1390. 
“ Clito nadlezhit emu protiv ukazu vo ispolnenie vozvratit’sya.” This 
plain statement, which proves that (at the moment) Bering recognized 
that he was not fulfilling his orders, is suppressed by Lauridsen and of 
course by Bering himself when he came to prepare his official report. 
Lauridsen however is not satisfied with suppressing the truth, which 
would have weighed so heavily against his hero and his argument, but, 
with the truth in his possession, he has inserted in his book a statement 
which is diametrically opposed to it as above cited. 





46 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition, 1725-30. 


ties quote, more or less modified in the translation, the reasons given 
in Bering’s report. But, as there is no reason to suppose these were 
uttered to the ship’s company officially at the time, a consideration of 
them maybe deferred until the total results of the voyage are discussed. 
The course set, according to Chaplin’s journal, would, if made good, 
have carried the Gabriel east of the Diomedes and close to Cape Prince 
of Wales. The northwesterly current referred to by Chaplin and rec¬ 
ognized by most navigators who have since visited those seas, would 
have carried the vessel more to the westward, as was actually the result, 
and it was probably allowed for. 

August 16 27. Saint Diomede’s day. The Gabriel had kept on 
her course with a free wind making more than seven knots (miles) 
an hour. At nine in the morning they found themselves off a 
high promontory on the west, where there were Chukchi habita¬ 
tions. On the east and seaward they saw an island, which it was 
proposed to call after the saint of the day. At noon the vessel 
had made since the previous noon 115 miles and had reached lati¬ 
tude 66° 02'. Continuing on their way, with a fresh breeze and 
cloudy weather, they sailed along the Asiatic coast near enough 
to observe many natives and at two places they saw dwellings. 
At three p. m. very high land and mountains were passed (proba¬ 
bly the highlands near St. Lawrence Bay). . 

Notes .—From 3 P. M. Aug. loth to 9 a. m. Aug. 16th is 18 hours, which 
at seven knots an hour (allowing the alleged excess to be the equivalent 
of the drift caused by the current) would amount to 126 miles. Deduct 
from this the seven miles sailed between noon and 3 P. M. Aug. 15th in 
the opposite direction and we have remaining 119 miles made on the 
homeward voyage at a time when the Gabriel was between the Dio¬ 
medes and East Cape, or at least in plain sight of both. But three 
hours later, at noon, according to Lauridsen, they had made only 115 
miles in all, although the breeze was fresh and fair. From Chaplin’s 
position for the turning point to latitude 66° 02' off East Cape is 96 
miles. From our hypothetically corrected position for the turning 
point, off Cape Seppings, the distance would be to the same place 126 
miles, or thereabouts. It is evident that there is a miscalculation, or an 
error in the record here, which, without further data, it is not possible 
to correct. 

It is certain that Bering with whom the right of naming any new 
island would have rested, did not then name the island above men¬ 
tioned after St Diomede. On all copies of the earlier version of his 
chart it appears if at all under the name of the Island of St. Demetrius. 
From this we may suspect that he identified it with the high land seen 
Aug. 14th, St. Demetrius' day, while others on board, suspecting they 
were not the same proposed the name of Diomede for the present 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 1725-30. 


47 


island ; regarding the high land as something distinct. If the hardy 
and self-willed Spanberg was the one who reported the land Aug. 14tli, 
and if he saw the high land about Cape Prince of Wales, as several old 
charts allege, he would have been the last to admit that the relatively 
small and adjacent island now seen, should be identified with his dis¬ 
covery. 

Aug. 1728. The breeze having been strong and fair an obser¬ 
vation at noon indicated that the latitude was 64° 27' and that the 
Gabriel had sailed 164 miles since noon of the 16th. In the 
afternoon the weather was clear and the wind became light. 
(The Gabriel must have come out of the strait this afternoon). 

Notes .—A distance of 164 miles from the position of the previous 
noon would have put the Gabriel in latitude 63’ 38'. The distance on 
the general course sailed by the Gabriel from 66° 02' to 64° 27' is about 
107 miles. It is possible that in copying or printing 104 miles has be¬ 
come transmuted to 164 miles. There is an obvious error here of some 
kind. 

Aug. 18/29. (Lauridsen does not refer to any record for this 
day, but it is probable that the wind continued light and the 
weather fair and that the Gabriel was slowly working her way 
westward and southward in the vicinity of Cape Chukotski.) 

Aug. 19/30. In the afternoon being in the vicinity of the 
place where they had met the Chukchi boat on the outward 
voyage, four baidars were seen with their crews pulling for the 
vessel, which accordingly lay by for them to come up with her. 
There were ten natives to each baidar, or forty in all. They 
brought reindeer meat, fish, and fresh water in large bladders for 
sale for which they were suitably rewarded, while the crew of the 
Gabriel obtained from them skins of the red and the polar foxes 
and four walrus teeth, which the natives bartered for needles, 
fiint-and-steel for striking fire, and iron. These Chukchi told 
them that they went over land to trade at the Kolyma. River, 
carrying their goods with reindeer, and that they never went by 
sea. They bad long known the Russians and one of them had 
even been to the Anadyrsk fort to trade. From this man they 
had hopes of gaining valuable information but he could tell them 
nothing more than they had learned from the first Chukchis who 
had been questioned. 

Ano- 20 31 to f u "‘ 2 '!. (For this period the documents accessi- 

o / Sept, y v 1 

ble to me give no information, but the Gabriel was doubtless 




48 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 


pursuing her homeward way uneventfully along the coast of 
Kamchatka.) 

Sept io‘ ^ heavy storm arose with fog and the Gabriel finding 
herself dangerously close to the shore anchored near the land to 
ride it out. A note in Harris indicates that they may have been 
near Karaginski Island. 

^ Ufr ‘Atone p. m. the storm had abated, but in weighing 

Sept. 11 7 ^ ° 

anchor the cable had been so chafed by the rocky bottom that it 
parted and they lost the anchor, and were obliged to put to sea 
without recovering it. 

Sept. 1/12, 1728. At five o’clock in the afternoon they 

approached and at seven the next morning entered the mouth of 
the Kamchatka river, thus ending the voyage. 

Note .—The Gabriel was secured in a slough of the river and the party 
went up the river to the fort of Lower Kamchatka where Bering passed 
the winter. 

It is certain that the residents of Kamchatka and others more or less 
familiar with the reports of Cossack explorations in Chukchi-land were 
not altogether satisfied with the summary manner in which exploration 
had been given up by Bering, and his apparent assumption that there 
was no adjacent land to the eastward except small islands. More or 
less such discussion and criticism could hardly have failed to reach his 
ears, and his reflections may have led him to think that, after all, he 
had been too hasty. Trees not indigenous to Kamchatka had been 
seen floating near the shores, no heavy breakers ever proceeded from 
the eastward and it was even alleged that land or the loom of land 
might be seen to the east from the coast mountains in very clear 
weather. On account of these and other reasons* which were urged 
by residents of the country, Bering determined to make a new trial. 
Instead of proceeding directly to Okhotsk across Kamchatka he fitted 
out the Gabriel for another voyage. Beside the fact that Luzhin, one 
of his cartographers, had explored the Kurile Islands lying next to 
Kamchatka, the vessel Fortuna during Bering’s absence had doubled 
Cape Lopatka and was anchored in the Kamchatka River when Bering 
entered It on his return. It was therefore evident that the straits were 
navigable and the return voyage might be made that way. Spanberg 
was ordered to Bolslieretsk “on account of illness” (L.), and it is pos¬ 
sible he took the Fortuna back there since she had already returned to 
Bolslieretsk when Bering reached that port, on his way to Okhotsk. 

* The natives even claimed that a man had been stranded on the 
coast of Kamchatka in 1715, who stated that his own country lay to 
the eastward and contained forests with high trees and large rivers. 
(Lauridsen, op. cit. Am. ed. p. 51). Bering himself states that he made 
the search of 1729 at the instance of the Kamchatkan residents. 


Review of Bering's First Expedition, 1725-30. 


49 


Lauridsen has ascribed to Bering’s own initiative the willingness to 
make another search for land as if these ideas were original with him. 
It is evident that this is unjustified and fanciful. Muller’s account 
shows that the incitement to a second attempt proceeded from the resi 
dents of the country and that Bering complied with their suggestions ; 
and Bering says so himself in his report. 

On June* 5/16, 1729, the Gabriel left the mouth of the Kamchatka 
River and stood to the eastward, directly off shore. She continued on 
this course about forty-eight hours, sailing a distance variously esti¬ 
mated at from ninety to one hundred and thirty miles. The weather 
was foggy, no land was seen, the wind shifted to dead ahead at east 
northeast, and on the third day Bering gave up the search and steered 
for the southern coast of Kamchatka, the extreme of which is marked 
by the point known as Narrow (Ooskoi) Cape, or more generally as 
Shovel (Lopatka) Cape, from its low square termination. He deter¬ 
mined the latitude of this cape, and passing through the strait south of 
it reached Bolcheretsk on the west coast of the peninsula on the second 
of July. Most of this time was probably spent in tracing the form 
of the southern part of Kamchatka. Half way between the Kam¬ 
chatka River and the coast the variation was observed to be one point 
easterly, and off Avatclia Bay three-quarters of a point easterly. 

In the American translation of Lauridsen it is said (p. 51) that Bering 
fixed the difference of latitude (for which one should read longitude) 
between Bolcheretsk and Lower Kamchatka Ostrog at 6° 29'. But on 
Bering’s maps the difference is only 3° 50', while in his list of positions 
no longitude is assigned to Lower Kamchatka post. In Campbell’s list 
it stands at 8° 39', which the correction of an evident error of 98° for 
95° reduces to 5° 39'. The true difference of longitude according to the 
latest charts is about 5° 25'. Where Lauridsen got his figures he does 
not state. Campbell, in Harris, states that Bering was the first navi¬ 
gator to double Cape Lopatka, but the Fortuna had made this voyage 
in 1728, though her commander is not known. 

At Bolsheretsk Bering left a crew for the Fortuna which had returned 
thither ; turned over some of his surplus stores to the local authorities 
and on the 14/25 July sailed from the Bolslioia River for Okhotsk. 
Here he arrived ^ uly and after some days spent in turning over gov 
ernment property to the local officials and procuring his horses and 
outfit, he left Okhotsk on the overland journey to St. Peters¬ 

burg. The second eclipse of the moon for the year occurred on this 
day, but during hours of daylight, and hence was invisible in this part 
of Asia. 

After an uneventful but successful journey Bering arrived in St. 
Petersburg Mar. 1/12, 1730, bringing with him, according to Du Halde, 
the map and report he had prepared upon his explorations. 

* Lauridsen says July, which is erroneous. 


VOL. II. 


11 




TABLE OF GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS DERIVED FROM BERING’S FIRST VOYAGE, REDUCED TO 


50 Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 1785-30, 


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52 Review of Bering's First Expedition , 17*25-30. 

Resume of the Results. 

Bering had brought a party, together with supplies and ma¬ 
terial, over the rough and difficult but long-traveled routes to 
Okhotsk. Wherever he went he found settlements and roads 
such as they were. He transported his material to Bolsheretsk 
and from there across the peninsula to Lower Kamchatka settle¬ 
ment. It would have been much easier and shorter to have 
doubled the peninsula and taken his stores by sea ; one of his 
party had already explored the straits near Cape Lopatka, but 
there was the chance of disaster in this plan and, with his stores 
on terra firma , Bering cannot be blamed for taking the land 
route ; especially as the difficulties would not inconvenience him 
personally. He succeeded in getting his stores and shipwrights to 
the place designated and there prepared himself for the voyage. 
In all this there was difficulty and trouble enough of a certain 
kind. That it all was surmounted with success is very creditable 
to Bering and his officers. But to call it exceptionally heroic or 
extraordinary, is to forget the hundreds of others who preceded 
Bering, without the strong arm of the government at their backs, 
who made the trails he followed, who founded the settlements at 
which he rested, who raised the dogs, the horses and the cattle 
which were used or consumed by his party. 

Whatever praise we may feel due to Bering and his companions, 
and it is certainly no stinted allowance, the appreciation of - their 
struggles cannot fail to include with justice, the still more re¬ 
markable and nearly forgotten pioneer labors of the undaunted 
Siberiaks, who paved the way, not only for Bering’s weary jour¬ 
ney, but for the slow yet never ceasing march of civilization. 

After leaving port Bering traced the shores of Kamchatka and 
eastern Siberia as far as East Cape. Thence he sailed in a north¬ 
easterly direction. At 3 p. m., Aug. 14th, land was seen astern ; 
the vessel continued in the same direction until 3 p. m. the next 
afternoon, having, at most, sailed about twenty-four hours out of 
sight of land but in shallow water. Bering then concluded he 
had gone far enough to show the separation of Asia from Amer¬ 
ica, or any land to the eastward. Ho doubt he was influenced by 
the testimony of the residents of Kamchatka who knew the work 
which had been performed in this region by Deshneff and others, 
and also by the fact that the native testimony all pointed the 
same way. If he was convinced of the truth of this testimony 


53 


Review of Bering's First Expedition , 17<25-30. 

he would have been disposed to accept as conclusive evidence 
which would not be so regarded by critics. All the evidence 
shows Bering as faithful to the letter of his orders, honest, 
patient with the ill-doing or insubordination of others, but per¬ 
fectly satisfied with the accomplishment of what he had been 
specifically directed to perform, and with a tendency to limit the 
specifications to the narrowest construction they would bear. He 
adventured nothing beyond. In the arbitrary government under 
which he served, with the violent competition between foreign 
officers in the Russian service for promotion in rank and pay, who 
can criticise him for the prudence and caution which kept him 
well within his instructions? I certainly do not. But to say 
that he was a cautious, prudent and sagacious officer, is a different 
thing from asserting he was a daring, adventurous and heroic ex¬ 
plorer. I have not been able to discover anything in his career 
justifying the latter estimate of his character. 

At all events in the present case it must in time have occurred 
to him, or have been suggested by his officers or by the Kam¬ 
chatkans after his return that the mere sailing off shore in admit¬ 
tedly shallow water for twenty-four hours, was not an absolutely 
conclusive proof that the continents were separated. Here was a 
man with a new vessel, a full crew, a year’s provisions for all 
hands, who has come half around the globe, taking three and a 
half years to do it, building ships and at no end of labor of one 
sort and another ; all this to get into the region where there is a 
question to be answered ; and when he gets there he barely gives 
twenty-four hours to searching for that answer with a month of 
the season still available for work ; and then starts for home 
without settling the question ; with a right conclusion, it is true, 
but not of his own discovery, and without securing definite proof 
to defy critics. 

Leaving out of account the continent within half a day’s sail 
which he fairly ran away from, ignorantly, where is there any¬ 
thing adventurous, daring or heroic in such conduct ? 

It is evident that if Bering had sailed along the coast which 
the Chukchis said extended to the westward, instead of going off 
shore, away from it, he would have confirmed that part of their 
testimony, and given high probability to the assumption of their 
correctness in the rest. 

As it was, he left the question in a state so unsettled as to be a 
subject of debate for nearly half a century ; even authorities so 




54 Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

friendly as Dr. Campbell assuming with great confidence that 
Bering’s conclusions as to the separation of the two continents 
were erroneous. It was not until the voyages of Captain Cook 
and his associates were given to the world in 1784 that the matter 
was settled beyond controversy. 

Even in regard to the details of his voyage it was only through 
Bergh’s publication of Chaplin’s logbook of the voyage in 1823, 
that the public were informed as to what Bering did, and it was 
only in 1847 that the unmutilated, but still ambiguous Report of 
1730 was accessible even in Russian typography. 

We find that all the authorities who published in the last cen¬ 
tury copies of Bering’s ma-p and accounts of his expedition 
arrived at what Lauridsen calls:ap* “interesting misunderstanding.” 

This misunderstanding was that he had sailed along the Chuk¬ 
chi coast, as above suggested, and that his farthest point was in 
latitude 67° 18' on the coast of northeastern Siberia. 

How was it possible that men of such exceptional intelligence 
as Du Halde and D’Anville and Muller, and Hazius, and Euler 
and Campbell were all so deceived ? 

The facts are as follows : 

(1) The verbatim Report of the voyage, the logbook of the 
expedition, Bering’s chart in its entirety, were inaccessible to the 
public for many years; the chart has never been fully engraved 
for publication. 

(2) The fragments of the Report which were circulated in 
print were ambiguous in their language or erroneously modified ; 
while the published reductions of the chart which got into print 
were misleading, or even erroneous. 

(3) Two conflicting versions of the manuscript chart were 
circulated and appear to have been officially sent out. That 
which appears to be the later of the two is in some details quite 
erroneous and at variance with Bering’s report as printed and 
with the facts derived from Chaplin’s logbook, these two consti¬ 
tuting the only authentic original information which has yet 
reached the public in printed form. But these two sources of 
correct data about the expedition were not printed until long 
after the charts had been widely circulated, while the extracts 
from the Report which appeared in print, even under so friendly 
an editor as Dr. Campbell were so modified as to support rather 
than expose the original error. How this arose there may be 
something in the Russian archives to explain, or, if not, the case 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 1725-30. 55 

seems insoluble. Whatever conclusion one arrives at, it is diffi¬ 
cult to acquit Bering of all responsibility for the misconception, 
if, as Lauridsen claims, he was responsible for the chart of Du 
Halde in the form it was engraved. 

In his report he states that their northernmost latitude was 
67° 18', that “all along the seacoast to this place wind elevated 
.mountains.” On turning to the Du Halde chart we find the range 
of mountains continued along the Chukchi coast until it reaches 
the latitude of 67° 18' where it stops. If Bering drew the chart 
so, it would have been deception, but it is quite as probable that 
the editor modified the chart in engraving it, to correspond to his 
understanding of Bering’s ambiguity. As this would present 
nothing questionable to the reader, in the absence of the details 
omitted by Bering, it would have been nothing surprising if 
Campbell’s interpolation of a false longitude for Lower Kam¬ 
chatka, in his list of positions, might have been, not a typograph¬ 
ical error, but an attempt to make the position agree with this 
erroneous assumption. If it was a pure accident, the coincidence 
is extraordinary. Of course Bering never was on this coast but 
Du Halde’s map is so engraved as to lead directly to the false 
inference that he had been. 

Again Bering says in his Report that at his turning point the 
land no longer extended to the north and that no projecting 
points could be observed in any direction. Since he had deliber¬ 
ately sailed away from the shores without attempting to follow 
their trend this observation would be absurd unless we suppose it 
addressed to a reader who took it for granted that the vessel was 
still skirting the coast. There is no mention in his Report of the 
fact that he had sailed away from the coast, nor of the still more 
important fact that the soundings showed that the water was 
comparatively shallow and discolored. Of course in the absence 
of direct proof of the separation of Asia and America this last 
evidence would tend to indicate that Bering was only in a bay or 
shallow arm of the sea and that he suppressed it shows, if not a 
want of candor, at least an injudicious reticence. 

The map for the day when it was made (in the earlier version) 
was a good one, and is appropriately praised by Cook, who had a 
copy of Campbell’s Harris on his vessel when exploring in the 
same region fifty years later. 

In his report of the trip eastward from Kamchatka in 1729, 
Bering says nothing about the weather being foggy or stormy, 




56 Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

but merely asserts that he sailed nearly 200 versts and saw no 
trace of land. He leaves it to be inferred that he could have 
seen land if it had been there to see, which if the weather was 
foggy was not true. 

The impression which these facts leave upon the mind is that 
Bering did certainly frame his language so as to convey the idea 
that his evidence of the separation of the two continents and of 
the absence of land eastward from Kamchatka was more conclu¬ 
sive than it was in reality. 

That this was done to avoid criticism seems a natural inference. 
That an examination of his list of positions would have shown 
the location of the point whence he turned back to be to the east¬ 
ward of the easternmost of his reported land is true, but his list 
of positions was not published with his report, does not agree 
with his maps, and when published by Campbell was garbled, as 
I have shown. 

That the truth, however, did get out and that criticism was 
not successfully avoided, is a matter of history. There can be 
little doubt that Bering’s anxiety to undertake the second expe¬ 
dition, which followed, was stimulated by a desire to set these 
criticisms (which would naturally be magnified by his enemies) 
finally at rest. 

It may be suggested that Bering’s report was modified by the 
authorities, though why they should make these particular mod¬ 
ifications is not very evident. Bering was the only person who 
could profit by them and the natural conclusion is that he should 
be held responsible. 

In pointing out that some of Bering’s acts are vulnerable to 
criticism I am far from desiring to sully his memory or give the 
idea that he was not entitled to great praise for what he accom¬ 
plished, much of which was admirably done. 

I wish merely to apply a gentle corrective to the exaggerated 
and injurious flattery and undiscriminating praise which has been 
injudiciously indulged in by his latest biographer. 

If the interest in the subject be stimulated by discussion from 
these opposing points of view, so as to result in the publication 
of some of the material still hidden in the Russian archives I 
shall be more than repaid for the time I have devoted to the 
question, even if the publication of the original data should show 
some of my conclusions to be ill founded or erroneous. 


57 


Review of Bering’s First Expedition , 1725 - 30 . 

Note —The reception of the original work of Bergh while reading the 
pi oofs of these pages has enabled me to correct several errors of previous 
writers, but it was too late to incorporate here the additional material 
which Bergh’s work affords. This will enable me to add, in a future 
publication, some historical data which have never appeared in English 
and which are necessary to complete the record. I desire in this place 
to express my gratitude for and appreciation of the liberality of the 
authorities of that ancient seat of learning, the University of Upsala, 
as exhibited in their willingness to send such a valuable document to a 
foreign student half around the world for purposes of historical research. 


Supplementary Note by Marcus Baker. 

ON THE ALLEGED OBSERVATION OF A LUNAR 
ECLIPSE BY BERING IN 1728-9. 

Bering was in Eastern Siberia, Kamchatka and the adjacent 
waters in 1728 and 1729. Could he have observed a lunar eclipse 
there at that time ? 

According to the ephemeris of Manfred* published at Bonn in 
1725 there Avere two partial eclipses of the moon visible in Europe 
in 1728, and two total eclipses of the moon in 1729. 

In regard to these four eclipses the ephemeris furnishes the 
folloAving data : 



1738, 

Feb. 24. 

1728, 

Aug. 19. 

1729, 

Feb. 13. 

1729, Aug. 8. 

Eclipse begins_ 

18 h 

32 m 

4 h 

07 m 

7 h 

45.11 

12 h 

02 m 

Total immersion .. _. 





8 

46 

13 

02 

Middle of eclipse_ 

20 

6 

5’ 

35 

9 

35 

13 

52 

Emersion begins_ 





10 

24 

14 

42 

Eclipse ends_ 

21 

29 

7’ 

03 

11 

25 

15 

42 

Digits eclipsed.. 

9 

51 S. 

7 

45 N. 

19 

46 

19 

44 S. 

Sun rises_ 

18 

36 






__ 

Sun sets .. 

__ 


6* 

49 



_ _ 


Eclipse_ 

Partial 

Partial 

Total 

Total. 

Sun’s declination _.. 

-9° 

38' 

+ 12 

0 42' 

-13 

0 16' 

+ 16° 

09' 

“ hourly motion .. 

+ 

0.9 

— 

0.8 

+ 

0.8 

— 

0.7 


* Manfredius (Eustachius). Novissimae ephemerides motuum coeles- 
tium e Cassinianis tabulis ad meridianum Bononiae supputatae auc- 
toribus Eustachio Manfredio (etc.) Tomus 1. ex anno 1726 in annum 
1737 (etc.) 4° Bononiae, MDCCXXV. 























58 Review of Bering's First Expedition , 1725-30. 

In this table the calendar is Gregorian, the time is apparent or 
true sun time, the day is reckoned from noon and the hours are 
counted continuously through the entire 24. 

The present observatory in Bonn is in 

Latitude 50° 43' 45" N. 

Longitude 0 h 28 m 23 s E. from Greenwich. 

At the date of the first eclipse Bering was on his way across 
the southern end of Kamchatka from Bolsheretsk to Lower 
Kamchatka. This would make his position somewhere near lati¬ 
tude 55° N. and longitude 160° or 10 h 40 m E. from Greenwich. 

He was therefore 10 h 12 m east of Bonn for which we have the 
elements of this eclipse as computed by Manfred. With this 
data together with the latitude and sun’s declination we have the 
following data for the eclipse in the region where Bering was. 


Beginning of eclipse.. 4 h 44 m 

Middle of eclipse. r _ 6 12 

End of eclipse ..7 41 

Sun sets.5 07 


This means that the sun set, bearing about W. by S. S., and 
the moon rose in partial eclipse, bearing about E. by N. | N., at 
5 h 07 m after apparent noon or 23 minutes after the eclipse had 
begun. The eclipse lasted for 2 h 34 m after sunset, or until 7 h 41 m 
in the evening, thus rendering observation of the last contact 
plainly visible. 

At the date of the second eclipse of 1728 , August 19, Bering 
was at sea somewhere in the vicinity of the strait which bears his 
name. Assuming his position to have been latitude 65° N. and 
longitude 188° or 12 h 32 m E. from Greenwich, equal to 12 h 04 m E. 
from Bonn, and as before taking the data from Manfred’s ephem- 


eris we have as follows : 

Beginning of eclipse. 16 h ll m 

Middle of eclipse. 17 39 

End of eclipse__ 19 07 

Sunrises..... 16 04 


It thus appears that the first contact of this partial eclipse of 
the northern limb of the moon may have been just barely visible 
to Bering. The moon bearing about SW. by W. was entering 
the earth’s shadow about five minutes before the sun’s rising and 
its own setting. If much importance attaches to determining the 
possibility to Bering of observing this eclipse then a more precise 
calculation is needful. 












Review of Bering’s First Expedition, 1725-30. 59 

At the date of the first lunar eclipse of 1729 , February 13, 
Bering was at Lower Kamchatka, in latitude 56° 03' N. and 
longitude 162° 15' or 10 h 49 m E. from Greenwich equal to 10 h 21 m 
E. from Bonn. For this place we have from Manfred : 


Eclipse begins....18 h 06 m 

Total immersion _ _..19 07 

Middle of eclipse. 19 56 

Emersion begins. 20 45 

Eclipse ends.21 46 

Sunrises.. 19 h 21 m 


Thus it appears that this total and almost central eclipse of the 
moon lasting 3 h 40 m began at Bering’s station l h and 15 m before 
sunrise of February 14, the total immersion occurring 14 minutes 
before sunrise. It is manifest, therefore, that Bering might have 
observed this eclipse. 

The second lunar eclipse of 1729 occurred August 8, when Ber¬ 
ing was in or near Okhotsk and about returning to Europe. We 
may assume his position to have been latitude 59° 20' N. and 
longitude 142° 40' or 9 h 31 m E. from Greenwich, equal to 9 h 03 m 
E. from Bonn. This eclipse was also total and almost central, 
but at Bering’s station was wholly invisible, beginning at 9 h 05 m 
a. m. and ending at 12 h 45 m p. m. 


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